No striker for Chelsea against Man Utd with Champions League spot up for grabs

Chelsea will have to find an alternative solution in attack at home to Manchester United in the Premier League on Friday with Nicolas Jackson suspended and Christopher Nkunku still sidelined with an injury, manager Enzo Maresca said on Thursday.

Senegal international Jackson was sent off in Chelseas 2-0 loss at Newcastle United last weekend, while Frenchman Nkunku has not featured in their last six games.

We are working on that (filling the forward role). We dont have many options, Maresca told reporters.

Unfortunately, Marc Guiu is still injured. He has started to train with us but hes not ready to play from the start and were working on different options for Friday night.

Jackson was sent off for serious foul play following a VAR review after he elbowed Dan Burn in the face.

Although Maresca said he had not spoken to Jackson immediately after the game, the Italian believes the 23-year-old will learn from the experience.

Nico is intelligent enough to recognise there has been an error. There has been a mistake. Thats all I have to say about that, Maresca added.

With two games to go, Chelsea occupy the fifth Champions League spot with 63 points -- the same as sixth-placed Aston Villa but with a superior goal difference.

Asked if he would have been happy at the start of the season to be two wins from qualifying for the Champions League, Maresca said: Absolutely. Probably we would have been happy.

We had moments, for instance in the first five or six months, where we were second and third, so even better. Now we are there and we are going to try to finish well.

I said many times already that we have had a good season. That can become a very good season if we are able to