But Maresca assured supporters that he was only trying to help James, due to his worrying injury record, and knows that he can rely on the defender-cum-midfielder in the same way he can for the club’s creator-in-chief Palmer.
“I promise you, I would start always with Reece, but I’m trying to protect him,” Maresca told TNT Sports at full-time. “He played more games this season than the last two or three years. He is happy and he knows that. He’s a top player for us, he is like Cole.
“The problem is that we need to manage him. Before he came on, he said, ‘Don’t worry boss, we are going to win the game’.”
Adding in his press conference, Maresca hoped that Chelsea becoming the first club ever to win all three European club cups can inspire them to even greater success.
“Hopefully it can be a starting point to build a winning mentality, you need to win games and competitions,” he said. “For sure it will make us better but also I'm very proud of the path and journey in the Premier League - the most difficult competition in the world.
“After Nottingham Forest, my outburst was a bit exaggerated but the reason why is because 38 games, you need to be consistent. It's something unbelievable.
“For sure we improved a lot since we started. We start to win games in an ugly way. With a young squad, you struggle to do that. In the Forest game, we won in an ugly way and that was very important.
The best picture for me tonight is that when we score, the first two guys to celebrate were Malo Gusto and Benoit Badiashile - the two players we changed. They enjoyed the celebrations and that means a lot. It means the spirit is good and everyone is helping each other.
“Now we have 10 days off where we need to recover energy. The target is to game by game and step by step but at the moment, we don't have any targets for the Club World Cup. This season has been very long.”