Enzo Maresca gives Chelsea fans what they want – for an hour, at least | OneFootball

The team news for this afternoon’s game against Fulham is out, and it sees Reece James lining up in the starting lineup for the second time in a week.

We certainly weren’t expecting that – that’s partly why we objected so hard to James playing on Thursday. So far this season Enzo Maresca has been very cautious in managing his captain’s fitness, and has almost never used him twice in a week.

But clearly needs must, and whether it’s just the importance of the game that made him roll the dice or a growing faith in James’ physical status, Maresca has decided that this is the moment to change things up.

At the start of this month, the coach hinted that this sort of move might be coming:

“We still need to manage Reece,” Maresca said after the international break.

“The reason why is because you know his history probably better than me. You need to be careful with him in this moment. We want him fit until the end so we will manage him until the end and then we will see in the future.”

James likely has one hour to show his impact in attack

Reece James celebrates a goal.

A Chelsea team that has been so anaemic in attack should benefit hugely from having James flying down the right wing today. We will don’t expect him to last more than 60 minutes, but that’s no problem. That should be more than enough time for him to make a great impact on the game.

Then it will be over to Malo Gusto to take up the thread. He’s more than capable in that role, but we’d be lying if we said we weren’t much better off with James starting as we look to get a huge win in our attempt to qualify for the Champions League.