It is the time of year when all clubs and managers are feeling the pressure of competitive football and thetransfer window. For three weeks, the two overlap and leave a complex environment to work in.

For ChelseaandEnzo Maresca, it among the toughest and most confusing situations around.There are a host of players available, on paper, but left out due to their futures being elsewhere.

Tie in injuries from pre-season, last season, and the first match of this season and it is carnage. It is no surprise that coaches prefer things when the summer is over.

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For Maresca, that is not until September 1. He has the trip to West Ham to get through and then the visit of Fulham just before deadline day.After Thursday's pre-game press conference, it leaves him four main pieces of media duty to conduct before the international break and a brief period of rest.

The season has only just started, though, and attention is on how he will deal with defensive questions and the external noise around his squad. The answer to that it to mainly ignore it.

Maresca confirmed that withNicolas Jackson andChristopher Nkunku expected to leave on permanent transfers in the next 10 days, neither player would be in his matchday selection for West Ham. "He is available but he's not going to be part of the squad because, as we already said, we have two strikers, we have two players in that position and also we know that something can happen before the transfer window closes," Maresca explained.

However, he did not talk aboutthe current options for Jackson. "No idea, to be honest. No idea. You know already from last season that I prefer to be focused on training sessions, prepare the game and these kind of things. I don't know."

He added: "Christo is with us like Nico, but it's the same answer as Nico. And the other two players, they are training apart, waiting for some solution."

Referring to Raheem Sterling and Ben Chilwell, Maresca ruled out two more players. It will come as no surprise, though, given they have not been handed squad numbers for the season and were both unwanted 12 months ago with nothing to change that position since.

Axel Disasi, Carney Chukwuemeka, and David Datro Fofana are all in the same camp.Renato Veiga has agreed a deal to move to Villarreal, so will also not be included. Aaron Anselmino is part of the first team but Maresca admitted he needs a loan before he is ready to play.

"Aaron is training with us," he said. "He's training very hard. He's a fantastic boy. Good player, but he needs to play games. He needs to go, he needs to play games. So he's another player that is waiting for a solution."

As for injuries, Levi Colwill is out and will be for most of the season after needing ACL surgery on his knee. Benoit Badiashile and Romeo Lavia remain sidelined. "No, Romeo is still out," Maresca confirmed.

"Benoit is still out. As I said, Wes [Fofana] is back and that's all." Fofana was named on the bench against Crystal Palace without the intention of playing, but is in contention here.

"Well, I speak with Wes every day," Maresca said when asked aboutthe decision to remove Chelsea-related pictures from his Instagram account on Wednesday. "He's very, very happy. First of all, because he's back from the injury, he's joined all the sessions with us and he's very happy.

"And as I said, after the Palace game, he was on the bench just to be with us. But from tomorrow, he's with us and he can also get some minutes. So we are happy and he's happy."

Fofana had been the target of criticism from Maresca ahead of the Palace game and there has been noise around his own position at Chelsea. He will be back in with Tosin Adarabioyo after he recovered from a minor muscle problem last weekend.

"Tosin is available," Maresca said. "He's available for tomorrow. I'm a little bit surprised because last week he was not available and the day before it said everywhere that he was not available. And now I don't know why you don't know that he's available. He's available.

"Because it surprised me that the last week against Palace, the day before the game, it was everywhere that he was not available. And now you don't know that he's available the day before the game [laughs]."

In total, of the available players, Chelsea will be without 12 at the London Stadium. That is not counting Alfie Gilchrist, Alex Matos, or a handful of other academy adjacent players who are neither here nor there at the club right now.

When it comes to those with shirt numbers and who could realistically still feature if transfers away do not come to fruition, then it is really only Jackson, Nkunku, Badiashile, and Lavia who continue to be out.