Chelsea are set to welcome back Cole Palmer to their squad for tonight's Premier League clash away at Aston Villa.

The English forward missed out on the 5-0 midweek defeat at Arsenal, though is set to return to the first-team fold for the Blues' latest fixture having returned to training during the week.

This will come as a major relief to Mauricio Pochettino, who is currently unable to call upon a number of players as Chelsea prepare to take part in their final fixtures of the season.

Reece James and Levi Colwill are edging closer to their respective comebacks, having also been back in training, though the Villa fixture is expected to come too soon for the duo.

"They are close and yesterday they were doing partial training with the squad,' said Pochettino. 'But they are not available [for the game against Aston Villa]."

Chelsea were dealt the recent blow of Enzo Fernandez being ruled out for the remainder of the campaign and have since lost Carney Chukwuemeka and Raheem Sterling to injury. Providing an update on the pair, Pochettino said "Sterling suffered pain in his lower back and Carney felt something in his knee, related to his problem before. We hope it’s not a big issue and he can be back as soon as possible.

"We are going to lose some players that were there and thinking of helping the team. Ok. The positive is that a few young guys will join the team for Aston Villa and that's a good experience for these guys."

Listed below is the squad Pochettino is expected to have at his disposal for the trip to Villa Park.

Goalkeepers: Djordje Petrovic, Marcus Bettinelli.

Defenders: Axel Disasi, Benoit Badiashile, Trevoh Chalobah, Thiago Silva, Alfie Gilchrist, Marc Cucurella.

Midfielders: Moises Caicedo,, Conor Gallagher, Cesare Casadei, Kiano Dyer, Jimi Tauriainen.

Forwards: Mykhailo Mudryk, Nicolas Jackson, Noni Madueke, Deivid Washington, Cole Palmer.

Doubts: Robert Sanchez (illness), Ben Chilwell (knee).

Out: Levi Colwill (toe), Wesley Fofana (knee), Reece James (Hamstring), Malo Gusto (knee), Romeo Lavia (thigh), Lesley Ugochukwu (unknown), Christopher Nkunku (Hamstring), Raheem Sterling (back), Carney Chukwuemeka (knee), Enzo Fernandez (groin).

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