Chelsea begin a run of three Premier League matches in the space of seven days over the Christmas period today when we travel to Wolverhampton Wanderers. And we do so off the back of a morale-boosting victory over Newcastle United, after Mykhailo Mudryk’s late equaliser allowed us to book our place in the Carabao Cup semi-finals via a penalty shoot-out.

Mauricio Pochettino revealed why he was so happy to see the Ukrainian winger get his name on the scoresheet and he has high hopes for the 22-year-old’s progress moving forward.

‘He's a fantastic guy and he’s such a nice person,’ said Pochettino. ‘He’s very authentic and genuine. One thing I can tell you, he’s very honest and very trustworthy and a very genuine and spontaneous guy. I trust in him as a person, of course.

‘And then as a player he knows he needs to keep improving. He’s still young and he is going to improve, because he has the quality. He’s a player that in his evolution is doing really well and we are so happy.

‘For sure with time he’s going to be a very important player. He’s already an important player but he’s going to improve a lot because the potential is massive.’

At the other end of the scale and the pitch is veteran centre-back Thiago Silva, still going strong at the heart of the Blues defence in his 40th year. Our head coach admitted he doesn’t know how the player manages his incredible longevity, but is eager to find out.

‘I try to discover his secret, because I want to steal it!’ joked Mauricio. ‘I think it’s amazing because he’s 39. Of course some days it can be difficult for him and you have to push him, but he’s doing fantastic.

‘I don’t know the secret but you can see that he’s very professional. To be professional is the most important thing in football to stay longer in your career.’

Thiago Silva’s experience has clearly been important for this young Chelsea team, but while Pochettino acknowledges that fact, he believes the younger members of our defence have gathered their own experience quickly and will be able to cope without the Brazilian should he need to be rested during this busy run of games.

‘We have other experienced players also,’ he added. ‘Axel [Disasi], Benoit [Badiashile], Levi [Colwill], I think they have experience. They can deal with it and already we’ve played some games without Thiago.

‘Even when we play with Thiago, sometimes we won and sometimes we didn’t. Of course, always he’s an important player because of his experience, but he’s an important player whether he is on or off the pitch, because he shares that experience.’

However, it is not just at centre-back that Pochettino believes he has a squad capable of covering for any absences, which he believes are inevitable with so many matches in a short period of time - as seen with Enzo Fernandez likely to be unavailable at Molineux today - and is confident the team can power through this demanding stage of the season.

‘I think it’s about trusting in them. We trust them and of course there’s going to be some problems, like with Enzo, that maybe he’s not involved in the next game. But we have a squad, we have young kids who came through the Academy who can be involved for the games. It’s not a problem.

‘The most important thing in this month is how we feel, how the group is, and I really trust that we can deal with everything.

‘We cannot stop because the players need to understand that every day can be important because we are going to play on 24, 27 and 30 December and it is a very short period to recover.’