By the time Chelsea finish their next match - at home to West Ham - there will be less than two hours left of the January transfer window. Due to that scheduling quirk, the club will be balancing on-pitch demands with off-field expectations and pressures.

Fans at Stamford Bridge might well have one eye on the latest news of signings, and sales, as well as another on how Enzo Maresca is combating Graham Potter's new side. Unless there's a dramatic uptick in business, there will be plenty left for Chelsea to do on deadline day.

So far, the only meaningful deals completed have been their loan recall of Trevoh Chalobah from Crystal Palace with Renato Veiga heading out for the remainder of the season to Italian outfit Juventus. Form across the last six weeks suggests that more could have been done to try and help the head coach.

His squad is lacking leaders at the back, bodies in midfield, and support up front. Not to mention in goal, but the club are absolutely set on the current options, at least until the summer.

No more defensive acquisitions are expected, either. Plans to sign Mamadou Sarr from RC Strasbourg have already been accelerated and he will join later this year.

In midfield and despite fitness problems to Romeo Lavia, and a scare for Enzo Fernandez, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall is their only senior cover. There is no intention to change that before the opportunity disappears at 11pm on Monday, either.

Moving forward and there is movement. Alejandro Garnacho and Mathys Tel remain targets. Christopher Nkunku and Joao Felix could both leave. Aston Villa are in the mix to sign the latter and also Axel Disasi. Things are shifting.

But Chelsea have seen the bulk of the serious activity wait until more than three weeks into the window. It leaves a lot at the door of co-sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart for the remainder.

Ben Chilwell, Carney Chukwuemeka, and Cesare Casadei are all in limbo and have been for six months. Dewsbury-Hall himself has been touted as a target for West Ham - and could yet leave. It means there are a host of question marks throughout the fringes of Maresca's squad without much time to find a solution.

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Unlike their rivals, Chelsea will be distracted on deadline day as well. At a time whereby the most frantic deals are being explored - think back to the summer when Chelsea sealed Jadon Sancho on loan and also got rid of Raheem Sterling, while sending out Chalobah - there will be other things on the minds at SW6.

It is not to say that Chelsea can't and will not complete business on deadline day. Winstanley and Stewart, along with their fellow recruitment directors Joe Shields and Sam Jewell, will still be working, and might not even be at the stadium, instead acting from the confines of Cobham or wheeling and dealing on the go.

Their hopes of being successful with substantial trades both in and out of the club is definitely impacted by the February 3 fixture, though. It mirrors the way Chelsea were foiled by Radamel Falcao - on the last day of the 2012 summer window.

Ironically, as Atletico Madrid and Chelsea faced off in the UEFA Super Cup, it was the Columbian who fired home a first-half hat-trick, showing exactly what was missing from Roberto Di Matteo's squad. There were sarcastic calls at the break for Roman Abramovich to mark into Diego Simeone's dressing room to bring Falcao out in a Chelsea shirt after a mid-match transaction.

West Ham don't have anyone of interest to Chelsea in the same way, but it was glaring then that a match was being played when such important transfer plans needed finalising. This is far from an excuse, though.

It is certainly justified to ask why activity has been left so late in the first place, especially when the deadline has been set in stone for so long. However, now the hurdle is ahead of Chelsea, it is one that must be jumped. They will effectively have less time to do their business and that could prove costly at a key time.