The Blues will be short one midfield option for today’s Premier League trip to Brentford after it was confirmed on Tuesday that Essugo has undergone surgery on a thigh injury suffered on international duty.

With Caicedo having limited training time ahead of our west London derby – he only returned from international duty on Thursday evening – Maresca was asked in his pre-match press conference who could, if needed, cover for the Ecuadorian in Essugo’s absence during a busy run of fixtures.

‘For sure, Romeo [Lavia] if he is fit,’ our head coach responded. ‘They can also play together, Moi and Romeo. I think Andrey [Santos] can play there.

‘We need to try different things as well, as we tried in the past with Josh (Acheampong) as a number six, or Reece (James) as a number six. But in this moment, for sure, it is Romeo, Moi and Andrey.’

Enzo confirmed, however, that Lavia will not be an option at Brentford today, as the game comes a little too soon in the Belgian’s own recovery from injury.

He said: ‘Romeo is not ready yet. It is the same situation for Benoit [Badiashile]. They are both close but not available for tomorrow.’

The Italian also discussed the more advanced midfield position and his options at number ten – having earlier explained it remains unclear if Palmer will be ready to return at Brentford after missing our last two matches. THere was one player, in particular, who earned praise for his attacking contribution.

He said: ‘Enzo (Fernandez) can play there, but we have different options, even (Facundo) Buonanotte can play there. Enzo has improved a lot in the last year, no doubt, in all aspects. Also, in terms of leadership and in terms of numbers.

‘I think if you see Enzo’s numbers in goals and assists, he’s one of the highest in the Premier League. So that shows that he can help us a lot in scoring goals. I have no doubt that he is going to continue to improve and doing very good things for us.’

Having options available across the pitch will no doubt be important during the coming weeks, as today’s match kicks off a packed spell of fixtures for the Blues.

Between now and the meeting with Liverpool before the October international break, we will play seven matches in 22 days as the Premier League is joined by the start of our UEFA Champions League and Carabao Cup campaigns.

‘The main focus will be recovery between one game and the next game,’ explained Maresca. ‘It is the only thing in this moment you can try to do.

‘Seven games in 22 days means almost every three days you have a game, so the focus has to be the recovery, how we can help players to recover their energy, and at the same time try to win games.’