Reece James is playing again but does he fit into Chelsea’s ‘best’ team?

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Reece James should be feeling pretty happy how things are going for him as an individual at Chelsea right now.

For the first time in a couple of years, James is finally playing on a consistent basis. As has been well documented, the England international has had several spells out in recent seasons due to injury, mainly to the hamstrings in both legs.

However, after making his latest comeback against Morecambe in the FA Cup third round in January, James has featured in 16 of the club’s last 20 fixtures. James also played for England against Albania and Latvia last month, his first caps for two years.

Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca promised to manage his workload carefully and it appears to be paying off. Should they reach the UEFA Conference League final, Chelsea have seven games of the campaign remaining and James has the possibility to make his highest total of appearances in three seasons.

Now, of course, these numbers should be put into some kind of perspective. As the table below demonstrates, James is still well short of the kind of figures he was producing in the first half of his Chelsea career.

Still, it must be a source of comfort after what has been a very testing period in his life, both mentally and physically. As he admitted to Sky Sports earlier this month: “It’s been a rocky road, the last three years. It means a lot to me now every time I step out onto the pitch, especially as I’ve had so much disappointment over the journey.

“Eventually, I will look back and say (the fitness challenges) helped me but in the moment, it is quite difficult. It hasn’t had a negative effect, though. There’s a lot to look forward to: finishing this season strongly and then going into next season, whatever that may bring.”

The 25-year-old is right to concentrate on the positives. Unfortunately, he has another problem to be concerned about and that is, if everyone is fit, James has a very difficult task to make it into Maresca’s ‘best’ team.

Chelsea’s 1-0 win over Everton on Saturday provided a reminder of that. James was named on the bench as Maresca opted to use midfield trio of Romeo Lavia, Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo — the latter playing as the inverted right-back — instead.

Due to Lavia having injury issues of his own and Fernandez struggling to adapt to Maresca’s system a little earlier in the campaign, this was just the sixth time the trio have appeared on the pitch together this season.

Reece James has made 20 appearances for Chelsea this season (Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images)

Chelsea were rewarded. Not only did they secure a crucial 1-0 victory to help their pursuit of Champions League football via a top-five finish, it was one of their better Premier League displays in 2025 — until Lavia had to be replaced by James as fatigue inevitably kicked in. It was the Belgium international’s first start for three months after a muscular injury and Maresca obviously does not want to demand too much of him too soon.

Like James, Lavia has his own battle to prove he put his injury problems behind him and string a number of appearances together. He has played just 15 times for Chelsea (10 starts) since joining from Southampton for an initial £53million in 2023 and has yet to complete 90 minutes in a match. But the striking difference between them is that Lavia gets to play in his preferred position in Maresca’s system whereas James does not.

James has been primarily used in midfield or as an inverted right-back under Maresca. Given he is a brilliant footballer, he can still make a good contribution but it is not how he made his name as a marauding right-back.

After all those frustrating hamstring injuries, perhaps operating in a slightly less demanding role can play a part in avoiding another setback. Maresca explained this is part of his thinking earlier this month. He said: “In terms of data, you can see that when a full-back plays in the way they used to play, up and down, they (do that) much, much, much more (often) than to go inside, covering a (bigger) distance, for the amount of times they go up and down. So, for sure, that way we are using James, in some games, can help him.

“I said already many times, Reece with us is playing right full-back, left full-back, midfielder — different positions. He’s not the only one. We have more players that play in different positions, so we are happy and hopefully the way we are using Reece is helping him to be fit.”

But, as he showed when being caught in possession by Ryan Sessegnon in the build-up to Fulham’s goal on April 20, albeit Chelsea still came back to win 2-1, James does not look as comfortable operating more centrally.

And it is certainly hard to argue that James should get in ahead of Lavia, Caicedo and Fernandez, who are naturally more accustomed to playing in front of the defence.

Romeo Lavia made a rare start for Chelsea against Everton last weekend (Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

Caicedo has been one of the best midfielders in the Premier League this season and has a very strong chance of being named Chelsea’s player of the season (voted by the club’s fans) at an awards ceremony in London on Sunday evening.

Like James, some might query whether using Caicedo as an inverted right-back maximises his abilities but the Ecuador international spends the majority of games in midfield anyway because Maresca asks his players to switch to three at the back when they have the ball, and they often dominate possession. That means Caicedo moves up and pushes inside to where he is accustomed to operating.

Against Everton, arguably the 23-year-old should have been named man of the match, not keeper Robert Sanchez, because he did the role so well.

Fernandez can’t be dropped on current form either. The Argentina international has overtaken Cole Palmer as the player providing the most assists for Chelsea this season with 11. He has scored six times too, meaning he has an impressive 17 goal involvements in 40 games.

When Lavia and Caicedo are both playing, it gives Maresca the opportunity to play Fernandez further forward, where he can carry more of a threat. His lack of pace is also less exposed defensively. Fernandez is also often captain when James is not on the field and issuing vocal encouragement appears to come more naturally to him.

And then you have Lavia, who Maresca significantly described as “one of the best midfielders” following the Everton victory.

You can understand why he was so enthused. It has been a small sample size to choose from but some of Chelsea’s finest displays under Maresca have come when Lavia is in the side. These include the league wins over Newcastle United, Aston Villa and Tottenham. Then there was the 2-1 defeat by champions Liverpool last October where Liverpool head coach Arne Slot admitted weeks later how “the game against Chelsea was maybe the only game where I felt the other team was better than us”. The way Lavia dominated midfield in the first half (before being substituted in the 53rd minute) would have been a big reason why.

James clearly still has a lot to offer to Chelsea and, after all the time spent on the treatment table, there are already a lot of positives to take from 2025. But Lavia’s own recovery has given him a different obstacle to overcome.

(Top photo: Julian Finney/Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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