Enzo Maresca on replacing suspended Caicedo, Cole Palmer and Reece James’ fitness | OneFootball

Enzo Maresca is confident that Chelsea can cope without the suspended Moises Caicedo.

The Blues midfielder will miss three games after receiving a straight red card in the draw with Arsenal.

Maresca will not be able to call upon Romeo Lavia to fill the void left by Caicedo, with the Belgian still recovering from injury.

But the Italian boss says Andrey Santos is ready to step up if called upon, and says Josh Acheampong is also a possibility to play in Caicedo’s position.

“For sure, again, we are a better team with Cole (Palmer), we are a better team with Moi (Caicedo), we are a better team with Levi (Colwill),” Maresca said.

“But when these players are not available, we try to find solutions. We did the same thing with Levi, we did the same thing when Cole was out.

“And now we have to do something different because of Moi.

“Andrey (Santos) is ready. His position is playing as a six, like Moi’s position, but he’s ready. We have more options, we have also Reece (James).

“I think one that can play good in that position is Josh (Acheampong). But we’ll see.”

Maresca reiterated ahead of the game against Leeds on Wednesday that he will need to be careful with James, given his injury history.

“It’s complicated,” Maresca said.

“I would like to start him but we need to do the right thing.”

Meanwhile, Cole Palmer returned to the bench against Arsenal having been out since September but was an unused substitute.

The forward has been out with a groin injury, before then suffering a broken toe which forced him to miss a longer period.

And Maresca says the plan is to gradually build up his minutes.

“He is available,” Maresca said.

“The last game, he was on the bench. For sure, with ten players it was more complicated for Cole because he also needs to come back in terms of fitness condition.

“He’s available, he can start the game. The idea with him is to start giving him minutes until he can play 90 minutes.”