Chelsea will play their first midweek Premier League fixture of the season on Wednesday night as they take on bottom of the table Southampton. Buoyed by an impressive and resilient display against Brighton last time out, Russell Martin's side are looking for just a second win of the campaign.
They will be up against it as Chelsea enter the game in strong form, cruising past Aston Villa 3-0 on Sunday. For Enzo Maresca there are some interesting questions for him to answer at St Mary's.
Often this season, the head coach has rotated almost fully when in midweek, owing to the ease of Conference League fixtures, a nice early Carabao Cup tie, and it being his best shot at keeping the squad happy. However, with Premier League matches of a higher priority and likely to be a tougher test, his selection decisions will be under the microscope.
For Chelsea's fourth-round League Cup match at Newcastle, a game significantly harder than any other challenge put to the so-called 'B-team', Maresca stuck to his guns and chose not to use Cole Palmer and a host of Premier League regulars. Now, with th eSaints on the horizon, it waits to be seen how he will approach the game.
Chelsea have two pretty divided XIs on paper with very little cross-over when it comes to weekend and midweek action. Only a few players have crossed between them - see Pedro Neto, Enzo Fernandez, and more recently Benoit Badiashile. On the south coast, there is uncertainty as to just how many changes will be made.
Reece James remains out as he recovers from yet another hamstring injury but Wesley Fofana - one of the few who have seen their workloads managed and hence haven't featured in midweek yet - has joined him on the sidelines. The Frenchman suffered a hamstring problem himself during the win over Villa.
He will be missing for possibly up to five weeks, Maresca revealed on Sunday. Fortunately for Chelsea that is the extent of their fitness issues. The rest of the calls will be personnel-wise.
Romeo Lavia has been guarded from midweek football after his recent history with injury so may well drop out ahead of the trip to Tottenham on Sunday. Defensive cover could see Axel Disasi get a chance on the bench but there will be eyes on Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Cesare Casadei, and Carney Chukwuemeka.
The trio have become Conference League regulars - although Chukwuemeka still finds himself without a source of much game time - but are not close to the Premier League group. That could change here as Maresca fills out his squad.
Below, football.london has predicted what the 20-man make-up of the matchday squad will be.
Goalkeepers: Robert Sanchez, Filip Jorgensen
Defenders: Malo Gusto, Tosin Adarabioyo, Levi Colwill, Marc Cucurella, Benoit Badiashile, Renato Veiga
Midfielders: Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Cesare Casadei
Attackers: Cole Palmer, Nicolas Jackson, Joao Felix, Noni Madueke, Pedro Neto, Christopher Nkunku, Mykhailo Mudryk, Jadon Sancho
Missing: Reece James (hamstring), Wesley Fofana (hamstring), Romeo Lavia (rested), Carney Chukwuemeka, Ben Chilwell, Marc Guiu, Axel Disasi
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