Maresca’s possession-based football helped inspire Leicester City back to the Premier League last season, but his use of inverted full-backs were crucial too.

Right-back Ricardo Pereira’s ability to move in-field allowed Wilfried Ndidi to advance to start getting goals and assists.

It’s a ploy now carried over to Chelsea and so crucial is the inverted right-back role for Maresca, that midfielder Moises Caicedo actually started in the position against Aston Villa.

The Italian head coach wants his ‘number 8’ to get in to extremely advanced areas, and with that extra midfield cover, it is no surprise Enzo Fernandez has been breaking forward of late.

He advanced to score the goal for 2-0 against Villa, having also grabbed the winner at Leicester the weekend before.

Marc Cucurella can invert from the left too and was sharp to pounce on a loose Villa touch while still loitering in midfield, to set up the opening goal for Nicolas Jackson.

This was symptomatic of Chelsea’s overall approach out of possession - pressing Villa aggressively, almost man-to-man, as they tried to play out.

Jackson led from the front, while Cole Palmer’s task of sticking tight to Villa’s main orchestrator Youri Tielemans was notable too.

The Belgian managed to wriggle free on a couple of occasions but was caught on others by Palmer leading to chances.

One wonders if the former Manchester City forward will try to do likewise on Sunday, but his primary role, of course, is to create and score.

Spurs cannot afford to give Palmer time and space on the edge of the box.

He scored a stunner from distance last weekend, while only Bukayo Saka ranked higher (76) for ‘shot creating actions’ in the Premier League (63) before the midweek round of games.

Palmer looks fresh too - rested in Europe having not been named in Chelsea’s UEFA Conference League squad.

Nicolas Jackson has also mainly been saved for Premier League football and the Senegal international looks far more at ease in the penalty box this campaign.

His effortless first-time finish against Villa oozed of a striker not over-thinking his chances - while his link up play has always been smart.

Ahead of their trip to Southampton, Jackson was outperforming his xG value of 7.0, having scored eight times.

This is a dramatic improvement on last season, with an xG number of 18.6 only yielding 14 league goals.

The attacking threats are endless for Chelsea – having added Pedro Neto, Jadon Sancho and Joao Felix in the summer too.

Let’s not forget, this fixture was one of the most talked about 'tactical encounters' of last season.

With nine men, after the dismissal of both Cristian Romero and Destiny Udogie, Spurs held their high line on halfway, and despite the Blues breaking in behind they couldn’t add to their 2-1 advantage.

When Eric Dier scored a stunning equaliser, one thought Ange Postecoglou’s players had pulled off an extraordinary feat - but the most marginal of offsides ruled it out.

Chelsea would get two further goals in the dying moments but the game left Spurs fans in little doubt about the team’s new direction.