Serving a one-match ban, Maresca admitted afterwards he much ‘prefers to be in the dugout’. Still, he was able to have an impact on proceedings, with three half-time subs playing a key part in our victory.

The Chelsea goals were scored after the break by Josh Acheampong, Pedro Neto and Reece James, leaving Maresca to give his verdict on a much improved performance from his side.

‘First half we struggled a little bit,’ he said. ‘Off the ball we were good, but on the ball we made some mistakes and conceded chances to them.

‘My message at half-time was the way we were pressing was good, but on the ball we were not good enough. We were sloppy in the build-up. Second half we adjusted something tactically and we were better.

‘For sure we can do better in terms of the red card, that was a mistake at 3-0, we can avoid that, but at the same time the desire from the players not to concede a goal was important also. In the last four or five minutes they were shouting to each other, ‘don’t concede, don’t concede’.’

At half-time, with the game goalless and the Blues struggling to find our rhythm, Maresca sent on Moises Caicedo, Jamie Gittens and Marc Guiu for Romeo Lavia, Alejandro Garnacho and Andrey Santos.

Maresca explained the thinking behind those subs.

‘At the moment it’s about protecting players. We already knew Romeo was not going to play 90 minutes. The plan was 45 minutes for Romeo. Moi cannot play 90 minutes, so the decision was to start with Moi or Romeo. Romeo needs a boost, needs to start a game, so that was planned.

‘Garna did a fantastic game against Liverpool, so was good to give him another chance. Jamie was okay when he was on. Marc Guiu was good.

‘Also, we planned the game expecting them in a back four, not back five. Joao Pedro is better as a nine against a back four, not a back five. If you remember West Ham away and Fulham at home, we played Liam Delap against a back five. So at half-time we changed, and we were better.’