After defeating Aston Villa 3-0 on Sunday afternoon, there is very little time to rest for Chelsea as the Blues travel down to Southampton on Wednesday night.
Goals from Nicolas Jackson, Enzo Fernandez and Cole Palmer ensured a dominant Chelsea recorded all three points at Stamford Bridge over the weekend. The win sees them move into third-place in the Premier League table, level with Arsenal but behind the Gunners on away goals.
The Blues go into Wednesday evening's game against bottom-of-the-table Southampton as huge favourites but Enzo Maresca is not the sort of head coach to let his players become complacent. Maresca, though, will be missing a few players for the match at St Mary's.
Reece James remains unavailable following his latest hamstring injury. Likewise, Wesley Fofana limped off during Sunday's win over Villa and Maresca confirmed after the match that the Frenchman suffered a hamstring problem that could keep him out for up to five weeks.
"Unfortunately it is bad news," Maresca said. "A hamstring problem. These kind of things usually require three four, five weeks. In this moment, we lose him for 10 or 12 games. In the way he was playing, it is a big loss for us but we have more players and we can find a solution."
Maresca continued: "It's a big loss, it's a big loss. He is doing fantastic but it is normal when you play this amount of games. Fortunately it was his first injury of the season but we will find a solution."
Fofana and James had been working on the same training programme. Both players had only been playing once per week and were usually rested for Chelsea's midweek games, however, the nightmare has come true for Maresca with both now suffering from hamstring injuries.
The Chelsea head coach will be hoping the same does not happen with Romeo Lavia. The 20-year-old midfielder played 86 minutes of Chelsea's comfortable victory over Villa before being taken off for Malo Gusto.
Lavia, though, is now expected to be rested for the trip down to the south coast this week after Maresca said this in October: "It is complicated when you [Reece James] get injury, injury, injury again. It is not easy so you are always looking for a solution.
"Probably the solution with Reece is the same solution we are using with Romeo and Wes in terms of using them just once a week, in one game, because probably in this moment, Reece's body cannot play twice a week. One of the solutions is probably to try and manage him in the same way we are doing with Wes and Romeo."
Lavia may not play on Wednesday but the form of Enzo Fernandez recently means the Belgian can be rested. Fernandez bagged his second goal in as many Premier League games on Sunday to put Chelsea 2-0 up at Stamford Bridge.
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Keep warm on the sidelines