Last weekend's shutout against Everton was our eighth in 16 top-flight matches this term – and our backline has only been breached on 15 occasions as we approach the midway point of our league campaign.

Crucial to that defensive solidity have been Trevoh Chalobah and Wesley Fofana. The duo have started six times together since November 1, with five of those matches ending in clean sheets and only one goal conceded, which came against Arsenal after the Blues had been reduced to ten men.

With a busy fixture schedule and Fofana's minutes being managed due to previous fitness issues, Maresca is not always able to call upon the Chalobah-Fofana partnership. Yet he acknowledges the importance of building on-field relationships within his side.

'It’s chemistry and when you spend time together, it gets better and better,' the Chelsea head coach explained ahead of our trip to Newcastle United.

'So when you play the same players, they can be better, know each other, and sometimes just with eye contact they can make some decisions. So it is very important.’

Our defensive prowess hasn't come at the expense of our attacking threat. Only twice have the Blues failed to score in the Premier League this season – on the opening weekend at home to Crystal Palace and away to Bournemouth – while just three have found the net on more occasions.

The quality within the Blues attack is key to that, but Maresca and his coaching staff also spend time on the training pitches at Cobham honing our output in the final third.

He explained: ‘The only thing we can do is to try to service the attacking players, and we can do that day by day, trying to do extra sessions.

'We do many, many sessions with the wingers and strikers in the last third to try to improve that. Garna is one of them, same for the five attacking players we had last year, and the target is always to try to improve the players.’

Alejandro Garnacho has been one of the beneficiaries of that work, with the winger netting twice to help us beyond Cardiff City in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday evening.

'As a player, you need the team around you,' Maresca responded when asked about the 21-year-old's impact and relationship with compatriot Enzo Fernandez.

'The connection between Enzo and Garna is good; they are both from Argentina and, most of the time, they play on the same side of the pitch.

'We know that Enzo is doing a lot for Garna [since he joined the club, and it's the same for Facundo Buonanotte since he arrived, too’