Chelsea will play their third Premier League game since the season resumed following the World Cup as they welcome Manchester City to Stamford Bridge on Thursday evening. Graham Potter's side were unable to follow-up their Boxing Day Bournemouth win, with the Blues slumping to a 1-1 draw against Nottingham Forest at the City Ground.
Raheem Sterling opened the scoring early in the first half but saw his goal cancelled out by Serge Aurier with Potter's men offering very little in a slack second half that summed up their season so far.
Conceding to an ex-Tottenham full-back made it worse for the fans and being penned in by a true relegation candidate offered a stark message to the owners, who are looking to invest heavily in the transfer market.
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Following the draw to Forest, Chelsea returned to training on Monday at Cobham ahead of their huge clash against the reigning Premier League champions Manchester City on Thursday evening. With that in mind, football.london has taken a look at what happened in Chelsea training before the meeting with City under the Stamford Bridge lights.
Mateo Kovacic hint
Following the World Cup, Mateo Kovacic, who achieved a third-place finish with Croatia, is yet to start a Chelsea fixture since his return. After missing the Boxing Day win over Bournemouth, the 28-year-old played the final half hour of the clash on New Year's Day.
Kovacic has now been photographed in training ahead of the Man City match, with the caption on Chelsea's website reading: "Kovacic will hope to start against City."
Academy star involvement
With Lewis Hall, Omari Hutchinson and Bashir Humphreys now all listed as first-team squad members on Chelsea's official website, the latest academy starlet hoping for an official senior call up may have been revealed.
Charlie Webster, who was spotted in a first-team training session ahead of the Wolves game in October after also appearing earlier in the year, has appeared to have impressed Graham Potter and therefore remained in senior training. The 18-year-old was seen applying pressure to Conor Gallagher in the latest batch of training photos ahead of Thursday's game.
Gallagher claim
A sub-par performance against Nottingham Forest may result in Potter ringing the changes for Chelsea's clash with Man City. Defensive changes are possible with Trevoh Chalobah pushing for a starting return, while in midfield Mateo Kovacic and Conor Gallagher will be hopeful of displacing Denis Zakaria or Jorginho.
In one of the photos from training, another caption from Chelsea hints at a possible change in the lineup with an image of Gallagher being accompanied by "could Conor stake a claim to start on Thursday?".
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