Chelsea transfer priority and Chilwell injury news pose Pochettino questions ahead of Preston

Chelsea will finally get their 2024 football underway this weekend when Preston North End make the trip to Stamford Bridge. The Lancashire make the journey to west London as the sides face off for the first time since 2010.

The Blues came away 2-0 victors on that occasion as Daniel Sturridge and Nicolas Anelka scored the goals to separate the teams at Deepdale. The previous meeting before that also came in the FA Cup in 2002, where Eidur Gudjohnsen, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Mikael Forssell sealed victory after Richard Cresswell had opened the scoring.

Mauricio Pochettino will preview the latest clash between the teams and face the media for the first time this year. A week will not have passed since the Chelsea head coach answered questions from the press but the transfer window is now open where things move quickly.

football.london takes a look at what could be on the agenda for Pochettino's press conference.

There's no getting away from it, it will be a major talking point of the afternoon even as Pochettino hopes to keep focused on the potential for FA Cup glory. The Blues boss provided his take on Chelsea's transfer window following the win over Luton and was firmly focused on developing players at the club.

He said: «That is a thing to talk with the owners and sporting directors. Always we have very good communication. We are not worried about that. We are going to assess now, we have a few days and we will start the transfer window now. We will talk and see if we need to do something or not. The most important in my opinion is to work with the squad, it is only now pushing them to step up, and recovering players, that is my focus, 100 per cent to try to improve our squad and the players that we have.»

Friday will