The Blues host Fabian Hurzeler’s side at Stamford Bridge tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon and will be hoping to secure a fourth successive win across all competitions.

Lavia’s return will support that ambition, with Maresca confirming in his pre-match press conference that the Belgian midfielder is available after recovering from a hamstring injury last month.

“Romeo is available again,” Maresca told the assembled media in Cobham.

“We will see (whether he can start the game or be one of the substitutes).” We have one more meeting now and then we will decide. What matters is that he is back and available, which is very good news.

“Everyone else can play against Brighton, the only one (who will be missing) is Reece. “As for Reece, he’s still out and there’s no real update on him at the moment.”

At the top end of the pitch, Maresca needs to address positive selection issues with Nicolas Jackson and Christopher Nkunku both in good goalscoring form and pushing for the starting XI.

Jackson scored a brace against West Ham in our last Premier League game, while Nkunku scored a great hat-trick to fire us past Barrow in the Carabao Cup.

The Blues head coach says he will choose one of the two to lead, but stressed he still has other key decisions to make after several impressive performances this week.

“I think it’s good for me to have some doubts,” Maresca said. This means that they are doing well and taking advantage of the opportunity when we give it to them. That’s something important and something we need to continue to do because I think we’re creating the right culture in terms of team competition and that’s important.

“It’s one of them (Jackson or Nkunku) but I think Pedro (Neto) did well the other day, Misha (Mudryk) did very well the other day to be honest.” Benoit (Badiashile) did well, Axel (Disasi) did well, Renato (Veiga) too.

“Cesare (Casadei) played a fantastic game for me too. “It’s important when there’s a chance, be it five minutes, 10 minutes, half an hour or from the start, they give it their all, so it’s important.”