Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia both joined Chelsea last week to bolster our midfield options, but Lavia sat out Sunday’s game at West Ham United, while Caicedo was only available to appear off the bench in the second half. Mauricio Pochettino discussed how those new signings’ preparations are going, with one of them set to be involved from the off for the visit of Luton.

‘Moi is ready to start,’ confirmed our head coach. ‘Lavia, after we assessed him, I think he still needs a few weeks to be ready to be involved with the team. In his conditioning he’s working to try to catch his team-mates. For Romeo we need to wait a few weeks to be with the team, but with Moi we are ready.’

However, two players who won’t be involved when we take on the Hatters are Carney Chukwuemeka, who went off injured shortly before half-time last time out at the London Stadium, and the player who replaced him in that game Mykhailo Mudryk, who has since picked up an issue in training.

‘We will see with Carney. It is not as big an issue that would maybe need months, I think maybe it will be weeks,’ continued Pochettino. ‘I hope he can be back as soon as possible with the team again.

‘He scored and then he got the issue, that is football. These are factors that you cannot manage and are a little bit unlucky. But I think he will become stronger because he was feeling the way he needs to work and compete. He’s young and for sure he’s going to be much better when he starts again.

‘For Mykhailo it’s a minor issue, I think maybe a few days, but he isn’t going to be available for tomorrow. We are disappointed because of the situation for him where he played 45 minutes against West Ham.

‘He’s a player that we have hope to help him to perform in the way we believe he can perform. So we are disappointed but at the same time it is not a big issue. We need to wait maybe one week, or a few days, to have him again involved with the team.’

It also appears this game will come too soon for striker Armando Broja to return to the action, although Mauricio confirmed his recovery from the serious knee injury suffered at the end of last year is continuing well.

‘We need to wait also with Armando,’ he added. ‘He’s close but sometimes you are close but still the last step is always difficult after the injury that he suffered. He is training well, we have hope also.’

It is becoming a crowded treatment room at Cobham, with those players joined by the likes of Benoit Badiashile, Marcus Bettinelli, Trevoh Chalobah, Wesley Fofana, Reece James and Christopher Nkunku in being ruled out for tomorrow’s match, but Pochettino is relaxed about the situation, knowing sometimes you just have to accept injuries are an unavoidable part of the sport.

‘We have a lot of injuries but that is football,’ said Pochettino. ‘Better all these things happen at the beginning of the season and then we can become consistent, have all the players fit and start to compete better and make the team stronger as we go on. It’s true we are a little bit unlucky with many of the issues and the problems, but I am positive and for sure we will be able to compete well tomorrow.’