Enzo Fernandez reuniting with Enzo Maresca, coupled with the collapse of the Lamine Camara deal, left Chelsea one top midfield player short of where they hoped and expected to be by the time the transfer window slammed shut.

Yet while many supporters bemoan the loss of Fernandez alongside a failure to replace, a relic from Maresca’s time at what he calls his “previous club” — otherwise known as Chelsea — may provide the solution, at least for the next few months.

Reece James began to play in midfield more under Maresca in the second half of his tenure, and very quickly it became clear this was a smart way to use a very smart player.

understands that Xabi Alonso sees James as primarily a midfielder this season, with the club of the belief that their captain’s multi-dimensional playing style can help disguise their failure to sign a midfielder on Deadline Day.

The added depth and quality of James in that position can be meaningful addition enough, they believe, and that could be critical to their chances of winning difficult games. It does not come any more challenging that this afternoon’s visit to the Emirates to take on defending champions Arsenal.

Whether, by the time the January transfer window rolls around, James has indeed done enough to work as the makeshift final piece of the puzzle remains to be seen, but certainly Chelsea will insist there is precedent for James providing them with midfield quality of the highest level despite being a right-back by trade.

His performances in a double pivot alongside Moises Caicedo in two matches in particular can be used as a blueprint for how to extract as much as possible from his unique set of qualities. Alongside the Ecuador captain in Chelsea’s 3-0 Club World Cup final win over Paris Saint-Germain and in last October’s 2-1 Premier League win over Liverpool.

James was immense in both matches.

They jury is out on whether it is a long-term solution, particularly given Chelsea are now placing huge faith in both James and Romeo Lavia staying fit, but Alonso’s favoured 3-4-2-1 formation appears to be a system where midfield is, indeed, the most natural place to slot in the 26-year-old closing in on 30 England caps.

James is almost too well-balanced as a right-back to play on the right flank in Alonso’s 3-4-2-1.

On the right of the back three, he would be too far back, so his pace and attacking quality of pass and shot is wasted. As right wing-back, too far forward so his defensive solidity and physicality are not utilised.

Midfield offers Alonso a happy medium, a way of making the most of James’s well-balanced, ‘Jack of all trades’ playing style. The sporting directors are behind their manager in their regard.

While seeing James as a midfielder instead of a full-back is new, suspecting his attributes would be useful in the middle of the park is not.

Back in a September 2021 qualifier against lowly Andorra at Wembley, then-England manager Gareth Southgate wanted to give James’s right-back rival Trent Alexander-Arnold a try in midfield.

Alexander-Arnold struggled in that position and England led only 1-0 at half-time. But Southgate’s half-time tweak, putting the former Liverpool man at right-back and now giving James the midfield reins, was a more successful experiment.

James only played there from the 46th minute until his 62nd-minute substitution yet looked more comfortable in midfield than his team-mate had done, and it was to be a glimmer of things to come.

There were moments in-game during the World Cup this summer when Thomas Tuchel knew he could trust James to do a stint in midfield.

Most managers who have worked with the Chelsea skipper in his senior career have used him in midfield on occasion. It is just that Alonso is likely to use him there for the vast majority of the time the Englishman is on the field of play.

Alonso says he knew before he became the Blues’ manager of James’s ability to play in the engine room and says the 26-year-old has “the intelligence to connect with team-mates in the middle, to know what's the best thing before and after you get the ball”.

The manager added on Friday that James is already having a “very important role in that position”, that midfield gets the best out of his leadership skills, that he is “physically perfect” for the Premier League, and that he believes James can become one of the best midfielders in the world.

What a welcome end to the dramatic story of Chelsea’s post-Fernandez midfield succession-planning would be.