Chelsea's second week of pre-season training is well underway with Mauricio Pochettino and his staff beginning to settle in to life at Cobham ahead of the Blues' international stars returning. The former Spurs head coach has enjoyed more than seven days to cast his eye over the first talents back in action, and even some of Chelsea's youngsters too as he aims to improve his squad's fitness to push the team on to better things after a disappointing season.

Pochettino has already noted that he does not want to give his side any excuses this term, and that begins in training. The 51-year-old wants instensity to be present from the off, with his infamous gacon test, 45 seconds of running with 15 seconds of rest where the distance increases, already implemented.

In his first press conference Pochettino said: "Now we need to be competitive in the training ground or we are not going to arrive on time. I don’t want to make excuses to the players to say first of all we need time to rebuild, we need time to work, we need, we need, we need. No, no excuses and we start to work hard, to manage and drive the way that we want. No excuses. The competition doesn’t wait for anyone and now we are going to start again against Liverpool in the first game to be ready to win, and if not we are going to struggle for sure."

football.london takes a look at how Monday and Tuesday's sessions went.

New arrival

Chelsea's new signing Nicolas Jackson arrived at Cobham to participate in training for the first time since his move from Villarreal. The Senegal international got involved in a lively session on Tuesday, as fellow forward David Datro Fofana completed a loan move to Union Berlin earlier in the day.

The 22-year-old sported an infectious smile in Chelsea's released media as he appeared to laugh with Pochettino, complete plenty of ball work and put the effort in during conditioning exercises. Jackson often seemed close to teammate Armando Broja, his prime competition for a spot up front, and was involved in drills with Marc Cucurella, Malo Gusto, Broja, Carney Chukwuemeka, Reece James, Thiago SIlva and Cesare Casadei. He even drew calls of 'excellente' from Jesus Perez.

First greeting

Jackson is not the only new face around Cobham this week, following the announcement that Chelsea signed Ishe Samuels-Smith from Everton. The young star has been added to the Blues' development squad after his £4million arrival over the weekend, with their pre-season set of fixtures to get underway in seven days' time against Boreham Wood.

However, he was met on Monday with a number of greetings from first team stars. He met the likes of Chukwuemeka, James and Raheem Sterling under the watchful eye of Joe Shields, who will have had input in his signature.

Chance earned

While young stars appeared to have floated in and out of Chelsea's released images, two figures have remained fairly constant in their presence. Andrey Santos and Cesare Casadei have no shortage of hype, while Chelsea are short of midfielders following the depatures of Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Mateo Kovacic and Mason Mount.

The duo, who captained their respective nations in the recent under-20 World Cup, spent the final six months of last term on loan at Vasco Da Gama and Reading, with Santos' six appearances in Brazil Serie A, the only top flight experience between them. However, both have been presented with an opportunity given Chelsea's transfer business, with no sign of Moises Caicedo's arrival and Conor Gallagher's delayed return.

For the moment they seem to be doing enough to keep Pochettino interested.

Can Andrey Santos or Cesare Casadei be Chelsea's next golden boy? Have your say below!