Maresca building 'escape velocity'

Chelsea are trying to build enough 'escape velocity' to see off problems related to injury, form, and a high workload caused by the Club World Cup in the summer.

Escape velocity, in space exploration and astronomy, is the momentum needed to propel an object away from a gravitational centre - like a planet.

In this case, those aforementioned problems were apparent despite Chelsea's 3-0 win at Nottingham Forest on Saturday – an even match that the Blues won through superior finishing rather than brilliant all-round play.

Dutch giants Ajax, in their current guise, are very beatable, and a win would be Chelsea's fourth in a row across all competitions, putting them in a strong position in the Champions League.

That would nicely tee up a busy period of six games in 18 days from the end of October to the mid-November international break.

After that, Maresca would hope the likes of Cole Palmer and Liam Delap return from injury, with Benoit Badiashile also out until December and Levi Colwill out for most of the season after knee surgery.

Leading into Maresca's press conference on Tuesday, key themes might be:

• Enzo Fernandez's fitness,

• The importance of Reece James,

• The emergency of Josh Acheampong,

• And Jorrel Hato facing his former club.