Having got back to work in training at Cobham this week, Maresca and his squad have their first match action of pre-season this weekend.

The VisitMalta Weekender sees us hosting back-to-back friendly matches at Stamford Bridge a week before our Premier League campaign kicks off. We face Bayer Leverkusen in the first game tomorrow evening and then take on AC Milan on Sunday.

Previewing the two games, our head coach explained his plan, with getting valuable playing time under his players’ belts a priority.

‘We are going to try for sure to share minutes with all of the players,’ said Maresca. ‘Some of them like [new signing Jorrel] Hato started pre-season very early compared to us.

‘So we are going to try to share minutes with all of them and we will see if we are going to try some different tactical things for the season.

‘It is important to see where we are, but knowing that I could see in the last few days where we are physically.

‘We have now two friendly games, in which we are going to try to share minutes, and then we focus on the Crystal Palace game.’

Our Premier League opener against the Eagles is firmly on the horizon, and Maresca explained there could be a welcome boost in the shape of a returning Fofana in contention to add to our defensive options by then.

‘Wes is back, he is training with us,’ Enzo confirmed. ‘I don’t think he’s ready to get minutes in the next two games, but probably he can be available for the Palace game.

‘It is big news because we started last season in the first five or six months with Wes on the right of our two central defenders.’

While the games against Leverkusen and Milan may be too soon for Fofana, you can still see the rest of the Blues in action for the first time in pre-season before the 2025/26 campaign gets underway. Tickets are still available to buy via the button below.