Enzo Maresca about to achieve something Chelsea have not done since Thomas Tuchel

Saturday's 23-minute cameo (not including stoppage time) for Reece James was the Chelsea captain's 20th appearance of the season in all competitions.

The 25-year-old has seen his career to date dominated by consistent injury problems but has been an ever-present figure since the end of December. Bar one game he missed through illness against Leicester City in March, has been in every Premier League squad since December 30. In that time, the England international has featured 11 times in the top-flight, and has also been involved in 's last four Conference League games.

It marks a massive improvement for James from last season, where he played just 11 times in all competitions under . The campaign prior to that, James was on the pitch 24 times - a total he looks set to surpass this term, should he feature in at least five of the last six (possibly seven) games.

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managed to get James on the pitch for 39 matches in all competitions during Chelsea's 2021/22 season. In 2020/21, James had his busiest season - at senior level at least - to date, with the right-back featuring a total of 47 times for the Blues in their Champions League-winning campaign. So, James is well on course to make more appearances for Chelsea this season than in the previous two campaigns.

With all sorts of 'touch wood' precautions being taken, it does look as if James has turned somewhat of a corner. This does not mean Chelsea should not be careful with him. In fact, the way Enzo Maresca has handled James, in terms of limiting his minutes on the pitch, has been excellent and that was made even clearer at Craven Cottage earlier in the month.

After completing 90 minutes less than 72 hours before in the Conference League quarter-final second leg against Legia Warsaw, supporters would have thought there was no chance James would be involved against Fulham. However, Maresca shocked the world by starting his skipper two miles from Stamford Bridge. Although he was taken off on 45 minutes - something revealed was pre-planned - it felt like a huge moment for James given the frustration and mental torment he has gone through in recent seasons.

"Fantastic," Maresca replied when asked about how he felt given James back-to-back starts in the space of three days. "Very happy because he played 90 minutes two days ago and played again 45, so for us as a team it is an important moment because we can start to think about him every three days.

"This is fantastic because he's our captain, he's a main player, fantastic player, so it is good news. Then it can happen, we conceded the first goal when he lost the ball, it can happen and the reason why we changed him was because he played 90 minutes two days ago, 45 and that was the plan."

Maresca is using James more and more in the central midfield role, despite the captain making a name for himself as being a marauding right-back. Tuchel has already said he does not agree with Maresca on that front and the England manager will be using him in defence whenever he represents the Three Lions.

But for Maresca, James has all of the ingredients to become a world-class midfielder - something the Italian realised within one day of taking the job as Chelsea head coach last summer. Speaking in March, Maresca explained: "You can ask Reece, the day after I signed with Chelsea, I sent him a video about seeing him as a midfielder.

"I see Reece as a midfielder, not just now but since day one. Before I met him for the first time, when he was on holiday, I sent him a clip of how he could play as a midfielder.

"So I imagined him playing as a midfielder a long time ago. He is playing [there] now, but the good thing is this season he has played as a full-back, a central defender, many positions, but the main target for us is to help him stay fit all season."

Whatever Maresca and his coaching staff are doing, whether that is there training methods or if it is just down to how often James is being played: it is working. The Cobham graduate will be desperate to finish the season on the pitch and help his team achieve their Champions League qualification goals.