Captain Reece James will not be fit for the game against Servette and new signing Joao Felix will have to wait until Sunday’s game against Wolves to be eligible to play.

Maresca confirmed that right-back James is the club’s captain, but that they “have three or four more options after him” and that he is “thinking about nominating one or two more to give them more responsibility”.

When asked why they signed Portuguese international Felix, Maresca said: “He is a good player, he is a talent. The club has known him for two years. He can play different positions for us – inside, as a number nine, outside.”

He said the departure of Conor Gallagher was “nothing new” but it was “very sad” to sell players like him, adding: “Everything is different at the moment because you have to sell academy players to make a profit. That’s the situation and the rules are there and we have to respect the rules.”

After it was confirmed that Raheem Sterling and Ben Chilwell were training outside the first-team squad, Maresca said he did not feel he had been “brutal”, just “honest”.

He added: “I spoke to Raheem before the Manchester City game and said that he was going to struggle to get playing time with us and that was why he wasn’t in the squad. I said to Chilwell that he’s a nice guy but he’s going to struggle because of his position with us. Whether you call that brutal is up to you to decide, I say that’s honesty.”

When asked if he will find it difficult to keep the players happy: “It is almost impossible to keep them all happy. I just try to be honest with everyone. The noise only comes from outside, I work with 21 to 22 players, not 42 players. We are 42 to 43 players, but more than 15 players train separately.”

He added: “It’s not about whether they are Chelsea players, they don’t work with me. It’s not chaos as it looks from the outside, absolutely not.”

On the difficulties with the contract length of some players: “That’s not my problem. I just have to think about who fits us best. Whether they have six-year or 20-year contracts, I’m just here to make the best decisions for the team. The contracts are not my job.”