Chelsea travel north to take on Middlesbrough in the first leg of our Carabao Cup semi-final tomorrow, shortly after booking our place in the FA Cup fourth round with a 4-0 victory over Preston North End at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.

Looking ahead to the trip to the Riverside Stadium, Pochettino confirmed he will take on Boro with the same squad which was at his disposal at the weekend, with no players returning to action, but no-one added to the injury list either.

That means Christopher Nkunku remains unavailable, our head coach confirming that is down to a new issue, and not the knee injury which had kept him out for several months from the start of the season.

'It’s not related to his injury, it’s a different problem,' explained Pochettino. 'It’s a small issue in his hip, it’s not his knee.

'Now we have to be careful with him as it is six months he was injured. He was involved in a few games but now we are being cautious, so he will not be involved tomorrow and we will see for Saturday.

'We are not sure when he will be back but we are going to be cautious with him. We hope that it’s not a long period, but at the moment he’s not training, he’s doing recovery for his problem, but it’s not that big an issue.'

There was also an update on goalkeeper Robert Sanchez, who has been absent since going off injured away at Everton a month ago, and Pochettino is confident we will soon have a better idea of when he could return.

'We just saw him, he came for another scan. The doctors need to see the scan and make a decision if we progress in his evolution or keep him away from training a little bit more. Today we are going to have a clear idea after his scan, which was this morning.

'He won’t need surgery, it is only about the pace of the evolution and how he can improve in going from doing treatment to starting on the pitch.'

Looking at one player who is available, Mauricio gave his thoughts on the recent performances of Malo Gusto, who has impressed at right-back during the absence of injured captain Reece James, as well as filling in on the left in recent weeks.

'I am so pleased,' continued Pochettino. 'He is a player who is so young, he looks more mature than he is. He came from a difficult and complicated situation in Lyon, because in the last few months there he was injured and didn’t play. Then he came here to adapt to a new country, new football and it was tough.

'But he is doing well, I am so happy with him. Always with young kids some mindset is different. We need to give him time to realise, especially as he is a young player who came from France.

'It’s always about adapting and learning and improving. We are in a good process, he is doing well and I am so happy that he can perform now that Reece is out and it is a good contribution for the club and for the team.'

He will need players in form against Middlesbrough, who he knows will pose a difficult challenge after seeing their narrow 1-0 defeat to Premier League high-flyers Aston Villa on Saturday, although he expects a better start from the Blues than we managed in the goalless first half against Preston.

'We had a meeting today and the message was the same as it was at half-time against Preston. We need to approach the game in a different way, we need to match the style and energy. It’s about having a different approach to the game.

'I was a little bit disappointed and the players were disappointed at half-time. Today we were reviewing a little bit the things that we need to improve and of course there is not much time to work because the priority is to recover 100 per cent the physical condition to be fresh tomorrow.

'It’s going to be tough. Watching the game on Saturday against Aston Villa, they lost but they could have won the game and it is a good team with good ideas.

'They changed the system after playing the whole season in 4-2-3-1, now they play using a different system, but we already know that maybe they can use this or another system. They have good players, a good coach and it is going to be really tough.

'It's really important to get a good result, knowing that it’s going to be tough. We need to go there and know that we need to start in a different way. It’s going to be a very competitive game.'