Maresca understands in football you are always going to have a target on your back, and the only way to silence the critics is to win games and succeed.

With that in mind, he knows a victory at the City Ground this afternoon to secure a place in next season’s Champions League would make for a quieter summer this time around.

‘We needed to manage noise at the beginning but I said many times that the noise was more from outside than inside,' Maresca said. 'Since I joined, inside the club it looked like quite a normal situation.

‘Since I joined the club for me it’s been quite clear the noise was more outside, but inside it’s been quite normal. But it’s all about results for me. You have more noise if you don’t get results, but you have less noise if you get results.

‘When we were second earlier in the season, in December, everyone was happy and said Chelsea were back. Then in February we dropped points and everyone said that Chelsea was not good enough.

‘So in the end it is about results and for sure if we are able to finish in the right way there will be less noise. But then in September if we lose games there will be big noise. But it’s a normal thing at a big club like Chelsea.’

It was pointed out to the Italian that Moises Caicedo may be an excellent example of that. Having initially come in for some criticism following his big-money move to Chelsea, that talk has promptly disappeared after our Player of the Season’s brilliant last 18 months or so.

‘For sure, 100 per cent, but the price that you pay for a player is not decided by the player,’ Maresca responded. ‘I think Moi is doing fantastic.

‘I think also Enzo [Fernandez] is doing fantastic, I think [Marc] Cucurella is doing fantastic, all players that I think a long time ago there was noise around them. But now, because the performance is very good, no-one is thinking about how much money we paid for them.’

Maresca will no doubt be hoping those three will be at their best again when we take on Nottingham Forest at 4pm, in what is set to be a huge occasion at the City Ground between two teams aiming to end the day, and the season, in the Premier League’s top five and the Champions League qualification places.

‘The most important thing is that I can feel the players are aware this is the game,’ our head coach concluded. ‘They are aware of where we are going, they are aware of the environment that we are going to find. At the end we will be all there and we will see how we finish.’