Cole Palmer urged to enjoy his football at Chelsea as he aims to replicate last season

The 22-year-old scored 25 goals for the Blues under Mauricio Pochettino during the 2023-24 campaign following his switch from Manchester City and, as a result, earned a place in Gareth Southgate's England squad for Euro 2024, where he further enhanced his blossoming reputation.

Palmer will head into Sunday's Premier League clash with Crystal Palace having opened his account in last weekend's 6-2 demolition of Wolves at Molineux and with his manager telling him to play without pressure.

Maresca told a press conference: "I've been very impressed with Cole, even if I already know him very well. It's never easy to repeat the same numbers as last year in terms of goals and assists.

"But I think the most important thing for Cole is to enjoy football, to relax, don't feel pressure on his shoulders.

"He has to enjoy every day, training and games, and then goals and assists, they‘re going to come, for sure."

Maresca was appointed as Pochettino's replacement at Stamford Bridge in July and is still getting to grips with the huge squad he inherited and which has been boosted further by the arrivals of Pedro Neto and Joao Felix.

A cull of first-team personnel left several big names, including the likes of Raheem Sterling and Ben Chilwell, surplus to requirements, but the Italian has professed himself happy with the group of players he now has at his disposal.

Indeed, he is convinced the club, who made it through to the Europa Conference League group stage despite a 2-1 defeat by Servette in Switzerland on Thursday evening, is already ahead of schedule.

He said: "I'm very happy at the moment. It's less than two months still. I'm very happy. In my expectation we are ahead, so I am very happy about this.

"And the good thing is we have just started, so we have many things that we need to improve, but we are in the right direction."

The Blues have no fresh injury concerns for the clash with the Eagles, although Reece James and Romeo Lavia remain on the sidelines.

However, Maresca is expecting a difficult game against opposition still looking for a first point after successive league defeats to Brentford and West Ham.

He said: "I watched both games, probably they didn't deserve to lose to be honest, but this is football. They are a very good team since last year.

"They finished fantastically and this year for sure they are going to be there again and get some good results."