The Chelsea stars who are not at the World Cup have returned to Cobham and have started putting in the work ahead of the Blues' Premier League return against Bournemouth in just over three weeks time. There are no shortage of players still in Qatar but Graham Potter is nevertheless putting those still in the United Kingdom through their paces.
The likes of Armando Broja, Jorginho, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Trevoh Chalobah returned to Chelsea's training base on Tuesday. They were accompanied by the Blues' development squad, who have also found themselves under Potter's tutelage.
Lewis Hall and Omari Hutchinson lead that cohort given their previous places in matchday squads, with the suggestion the former has been upgraded to a first team player. The 18-year-old has at they very least been featured in the same bootroom as senior teammates.
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With two days of training sessions down, and a flight to Abu Dhabi awaiting this weekend ahead of a friendly against Aston Villa, football.london takes a look what we've been able to learn from the released media so far.
Charlie Webster feeling at home
The development squad make up the bulk of the numbers and are receiving some intense attention from Potter as the 47-year-old prepares his team for the league's return. Chelsea fly to the Middle East on Sunday and it seems likely a significant proportion of that group may have to fly out, with any Under-21 player involved in the friendly match versus Villa on December 12, still expected to be available to face Cheltenham Town in the Papa John's Trophy match in the days following.
Undoubtedly many will see this as the perfect opportunity to make their imprint in the same manner as Hall and Hutchinson, even if Potter has been unafraid to invite youngsters into the first team training environment previously. A player many will be hoping to see is Charlie Webster, a central midfielder with a lot of talent and support from those who follow the academy.
The youngster is out of contract at the end of the season but has not been a complete stranger from first team training. Following this week's sessions, Webster has already posted an image of training to Instagram accompanied by a simple message: "In my element."
It remains to be seen if any of the youngsters can make an impression over the next two weeks.
Still no Reece James or Ben Chilwell
The return of Chelsea's stars to training left many awaiting whether Reece James, Wesley Fofana, Kepa Arrizabalaga, Ben Chilwell or Kepa Arrizabalaga had managed to return to the fold. Potter has yet to be so fortunate as the group continue on the comeback trail.
James and Fofana of course headed out to Dubai last month to continue some rehabilitation and both have been seen working outdoors since. Chilwell has posted footage of some treadmill work and appears to have accompanied that with plenty of work in the pool to maintain his fitness.
Injury return
While no first team star has returned to fitness yet, there was a familiar face on the training pitches of Cobham this week. Teddy Sharman-Lowe will be recognised by many as travelling with the Chelsea first team squad on occasion as third goalkeeper, but has been out of action in recent months. After plenty of recovery the 19-year-old goalkeeper is back amongst the action and appeared pleased to be so. "Back outside... Getting there... Back on the pitch with the boys," he said on Instagram.
Vocal Graham Potter
The Chelsea coach's enthusiasm has not been dampened by his lack of first team stars and Potter looked very involved in Wednesday's training. The Blues boss could be seen encouraging the likes of Lewis Hall and Jorginho and detailing the specifics of where he wanted passes to come from and go to within Chelsea's shape.
There was perhaps even a hint of how Chelsea could soon be lining up as Potter referenced playing the ball into 'the opposite 8'. It's already been proposed that that the Blues will be looking to play 4-3-3 moving forwards and that could be another sign that will indeed be the case when the Premier League restarts.
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