Chelseavs.Leicester

Caicedo has made a total of 31 appearances for the Blues this season, which includes starting each of Chelsea's 27 matches in the top flight.

However, the Ecuador international is at risk of missing two games during an important period having reached nine yellow cards in the Premier League.

The 23-year-old must come through a five-match period without a further caution to avoid having to serve a suspension.

With Chelsea facing Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur in the matches after the meeting with the Foxes this weekend, it was plausible that Maresca may have considered taking no risks.

What has Maresca said on Caicedo?

Speaking to reporters at a press conference after the win over Copenhagen on Thursday night, Maresca stated that he was not prepared to plan too far ahead when Chelsea are bidding to remain in the top five of the standings.

As quoted by football.london, the Italian said: "No, no, no. I know that they said this to me, but at this moment for us, it's about winning games.

"We need to win games, so we cannot plan giving Moi a rest thinking that he can play Arsenal. We need to win against Leicester and then we need to focus on how we can beat Arsenal. It's just game by game and we need our best players on the pitch."

He added: "The position of Moises, if you see his background, last year he had 11 to 12 yellow cards, the year before the same, because he's a midfielder. You are in the traffic.

"Sometimes you have to make some fouls. It's normal. Hopefully, he can avoid that until the end, knowing that probably it's difficult, but the good thing is that we have also Romeo [Lavia] now, he's started with us already."

Lavia update

While it was initially expected that Romeo Lavia would be sidelined until after the March international break, Maresca revealed earlier this week that the Belgium international had made a return to training after almost two months on the sidelines.

Although he has ruled out the prospect of Lavia starting on Sunday, Maresca has hinted that the youngster may be in a position to return to the squad.

The 21-year-old has been restricted to nine starts and three substitute outings this season, on the back of only making one appearance from the bench in 2023-24.

Written by

Darren Plant