Chelsea return to action in just over a week with Tottenham the visitors to Stamford Bridge in the 30th match of the Blues' Premier League season.
With just nine games left to go in the campaign, Enzo Maresca has his team sitting in fourth-place as they bid to qualify for the Champions League after two years out of Europe's elite competition. Finishing in the top five should be enough for qualification this season, but the top half of the table remains very tight for the final stretch of the campaign.
Chelsea's form in 2025 has been subpar, with the Blues winning just four of their 10 games in the Premier League since the turn of the year. There have been a few injury problems, though, for some key players. Nicolas Jackson has been absent since February 3 with a hamstring injury, while Noni Madueke suffered a similar problem 11 days later in the 3-0 defeat to Brighton at the Amex Stadium.
Both have been severely missed for different reasons. Jackson had been Maresca's go-to No.9 leading up to the injury and Chelsea were forced to reshuffle their pack and experiment with different setups during the 23-year-old's absence. Madueke, meanwhile, is Chelsea's top goal scorer from the wing this season, with the 23-year-old England international finding the back of the net on eight occasions in all competitions throughout 2024/25.
Whatever you think of Madueke, and he is a pretty divisive figure amongst the Chelsea fan base, he offers a goal threat that the other wingers have not really shown this season at Stamford Bridge. As well as this, Madueke offers a route out when the Blues are under pressure, with the winger averaging the third-best ball progression per 90 minutes in the Premier League.
Ball progression, in this case outfield players only, is measured on progressive carries and progressive passes. In Madueke's case, there is much more of the former, with the former PSV Eindhoven attacker averaging 9.34 progressive actions per 90 in the Premier League. Only Manchester City winger Savinho (in second with 10.82) and Liverpool's Trent Alexander-Arnold (first with 11.18) have more.
Interestingly, Jadon Sancho, who often plays on the opposite flank to Madueke, is the fourth-best in the English top-flight this season. Sancho averages 9.16 per game and like Madueke, his tally is accumulated mostly by progressive carrying of the ball rather than passes.
Madueke is due back after the international break and seemingly small things like this will provide a boost to Chelsea and Maresca. Sancho's form in front of goal has been poor as of late, but perhaps it is details like this that Maresca keeps a close eye on.
There is a world where both of them start on either wing against Tottenham next Thursday. We await to see if Madueke will be back in time for the visit of Spurs and if he is, then it will likely be between Sancho and Pedro Neto on the left wing. Maresca sees Neto as more of a right winger, but the Portugal international is in better form than Sancho at the moment, so a decision could be made on that instead.
Neto has been used as the No.9 in recent weeks with Jackson injured, but with the latter expected to be back next week, there could be another reshuffle in the attack. Many believe a front four of Madueke, Cole Palmer, Neto and Jackson is the strongest attack the Blues can put out with the current crop of players available - and the statistics somewhat back this up.
In the six games the four have started together in the Premier League this season, Chelsea are unbeaten in all of them. The Blues have won three of those six matches but they haven't all started together in over two months, with the last time being the 3-1 victory over Wolves on January 20 at Stamford Bridge.