Mauricio Pochettino’s side suffered a painful defeat to Arsenal on Tuesday but remain in the hunt for a European place in the Premier League.

We have already made the trip to Villa Park once this season. That came in the FA Cup - a fourth-round replay - and we produced a fine performance to secure a 3-1 victory.

A repeat display on Saturday will be needed given Villa’s home form this season; Unai Emery’s side have been beaten just three times in front of their own fans in the Premier League.

A positive ahead of our trip to the Midlands was the return of Cole Palmer to partial team training.

The 21-year-old, our top scorer this term, missed the defeat against Arsenal at the Emirates due to illness but was able to undertake part of today’s session at our Surrey training base.

There was also the welcome sight of club captain Reece James and fellow Academy graduate Levi Colwill out on the grass. Both were also in partial team training.

James has been sidelined since December after undergoing hamstring surgery while Colwill hasn't featured for the Blues since our 2-2 draw away at west London neighbours Brentford at the start of March.

Also continuing their respective recoveries from injury were French duo Christopher Nkunku and Lesley Ugochukwu.

Nkunku has been restricted to ten appearances in his first season at Stamford Bridge while Ugochukwu has been ruled out since our Christmas Eve encounter against Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Pochettino will deliver updates on the duo ahead of our clash in the Midlands. He will face the media at Cobham at 12.45pm and you can watch his press conference live on chelseafc.com or the Official Chelsea App.