Chelsea take on Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge in the FA Cup fourth round on Friday evening, and Mauricio Pochettino discussed his options for tomorrow's starting line-up as he looked ahead to the game.

He begun by updating on two players who have recently returned to team training as part of their recovery from injury, revealing Malo Gusto and Christopher Nkunku could be back in contention soon, but this game comes too early for the French duo.

'They could be available for Liverpool on Wednesday, maybe,' said Pochettino. 'We need to see how they progress in the next few days. We are positive but we will see. They are not going to be available for tomorrow.'

One player who is now back from injury is Ben Chilwell, who made his first start since September in Tuesday's 6-1 Carabao Cup win over Middlesbrough. However, Pochettino insists Chilwell's return still needs to be managed carefully, meaning he has a difficult decision to make tomorrow.

'He's an experienced player and the challenge was from the beginning of pre-season to build his fitness and of course improve not only his offensive face, but his defensive face. That was the challenge for us, to help him be a more complete player.

'He is an important player of course, if he is fit and can cope with the 90 minutes. But on Tuesday he could not cope because after 10 or 15 minutes of the second half he asked to come off because he needs to build his fitness.

'Now we have doubts to start with him tomorrow because we are assessing him, if he can cope with another game after three days. It is a massive decision because we want to build his confidence and his fitness, to be consistent enough to play the rest of the season.

'That is why we are working really hard with the medical staff and the performance analysts to make the best decision. If he cannot start tomorrow he is going to be on the bench and we will see if he can play and help the team in the second half.

'He’s very optimistic and very positive about always wanting to play, even when he is tired. Now we need to be careful because the player always wants to play, but it’s important to listen to the advice of the professionals in our medical and performance areas. We always work together and listen to the advice. We were thinking maybe to play with him tomorrow from the start, but we need to see if it is sensible.'

Pochettino also gave his view on Cole Palmer's impressive start to life at Chelsea since joining the Blues from Manchester City in August, admitting he is matching every expectation they had for our last summer signing.

'Always we are all optimistic whenever you sign a player, but it is true he is doing fantastic,' Pochettino added. 'He’s doing great and after six months he is doing a very good job. We are so happy with his impact, with his talent of course and the way he is performing.

'Always you expect when you sign a player that they can perform and they can help the team. The way that he is performing is fantastic because he’s helping the team achieve things that we wanted.'