Chelsea will be hoping to get back to winning ways this weekend as they welcome Aston Villa to Stamford Bridge in the Premier League. Mauricio Pochettino has seen his team win just one league game this season; the Blues have been unable to take advantage of their promising fixture run-in with just four points taken from games against Luton Town, Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth.

Some challenging games on paper are now returning for Chelsea and that starts with the visit of Aston Villa. Last season, Unai Emery's side beat Chelsea 2-0 in west London and it proved to be Graham Potter's final game in charge.

Following a successful season, Villa are fresh off competing in their first European game in over a decade this past Thursday. Having travelled to Poland to face Legia Warsaw, fatigue could potentially be an issue for the visitors especially with Emery needing to bring on the likes of Douglas Luiz, Ollie Watkins and Moussa Diaby

Meanwhile, Chelsea have had plenty of rest with significant work done on the training ground in preparation for Sunday's game. With that said, football.london has pulled together everything spotted from Cobham ahead of a must-win fixture.

Mudryk joy

Mykhailo Mudryk's struggles since his move to Chelsea earlier this year are very well known. The Ukraine international is yet to score a competitive goal for the Blues and his chances to do so have remained limited under Mauricio Pochettino.

Last weekend he was given a chance against Bournemouth, however he was brought off after 60 minutes. Despite Mudryk struggling to make an impression, he does not appear to be letting it affect his morale in training with the 22-year-old sharing a joke with goalkeeper Robert Sanchez which brought a huge smile to his face.

Another opportunity from the start may be unlikely, but if Mudryk can continue to have those positive emotions around football, his breakthrough moment for the Blues will surely arrive soon.

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Silva response

Thiago Silva was left visibly frustrated during several moments of Chelsea's clash with Bournemouth last Sunday. However, upon celebrating his 39th birthday in the week, the Brazil international appeared very relaxed in training.

During Friday's session at Cobham, Silva was captured on numerous occasions smiling and laughing before the entire group gathered around to wish him a happy birthday. The veteran defender was also forced to run through a tunnel set up by his team-mates with every member getting to slap his back in a playful manner.

A happy squad

The most recent training session held at Cobham appeared to be a rather relaxed one overseen by Pochettino, at least that is how it appeared in front of the cameras. Enzo Fernandez and Levi Colwill joined Silva as members of the squad caught either hysterically laughing or stunned into silence.

While pressure is on for Chelsea to get results, having fun playing football can often alleviate any tensions and if that is what Pochettino is trying to do with his squad, it appears to be working on the training pitches and if it can translate into three points at the weekend, it will surely have been worthwhile.