Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino will be hoping to ease the pressure on his future at Stamford Bridge with victory over Aston Villa in the FA Cup this evening.
football.london understands that despite the growing pressure, the club will wait until the end of the season to assess Pochettino's future as manager. The Argentine has been under the spotlight following a poor run of results, which includes only two wins in their last six matches in all competitions.
Sunday's 4-2 home loss to Wolves has left many question marks over Pochettino and his ideology with the squad. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you want to look at it, Chelsea are back in action tonight.
After drawing 0-0 with Villa in the original fixture, the Blues travel to Villa Park knowing victory will set them up a fifth round tie with Leeds United. Unai Emery's men ended a run of three games without victory on Saturday with a resounding 5-0 thumping of Sheffield United.
Defeating Villa will be a difficult task and Chelsea will be without one of their most consistent performers in Levi Colwill. The 20-year-old hasn't played since pulling out of the team before the first meeting between the two sides.
He was replaced by Alfie Gilchrist before kick-off and missed the defeats to Liverpool and Wolves. The club have confirmed that the defender is «beginning the reconditioning phase» of his return to fitness.
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Colwill joins Trevoh Chalobah and Robert Sanchez in the phase, with Chalobah now in team training and Sanchez in «partial» training. Marc Cucurella (ankle), Reece James
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