At a blustery Cobham this afternoon, Chelsea's players took to the training pitches for the final time ahead of the Champions League Round of 16 first leg against Lille.
The Blues go into the contest at Stamford Bridge tomorrow evening as heavy favourites. Part of the reason for that is obvious: Chelsea are the reigning world and European champions. Another factor, however, is Lille have struggled for form this term.
The French side are currently eleventh in Ligue 1 – it's some drop off from their triumphant 2020/21 campaign in which they shocked Paris Saint-Germain to win the title.
Yet Chelsea head coach Thomas Tuchel has warned his Chelsea players not to expect an easy ride. He knows Lille will post a threat.
"Last season they became champions which is huge in France," Tuchel explained during his pre-match press conference. "From that point, they lost players and the coach so there's a huge change.
"If the change is so big then there's a possibility that it takes some time to settle in. They lost another key player – (Jonathan) Ikone – in winter from their attacking formation. B
"But still, we all know how physical French football is, the offensive players are physical and fast. They are very brave in one-on-one challenges, they are always a threat on counter-attacks and disciplined against the ball.
"They have the chance to play this game as underdogs and have the mentality with nothing to lose and they will take it from there.
"It is like this always that you respect the game and the opponent. We will prepare our team like we always do and hopefully find the best performance that we usually do in knockout and cup matches and play a competitive match tomorrow."
This afternoon's session, undertaken in the final throws of storm Franklin, will be the starting point from which Tuchel picks his side for tomorrow's clash.
And here are six things we spotted from the section of training that was open to the media and supporters at Cobham.
Mount makes his return
It was during the Club World Cup final against Palmeiras that Mason Mount came off with an ankle ligament injury. He left the Mohammed Bin Zayed Stadium that night on crutches and there was concern the England international could be ruled out for some time.
Fortunately, those fears were quickly allayed but Mount was expected to face a race against time to make it back for Sunday's Carabao Cup final.
The academy graduate has proved in the past, though, he has rather impressive powers of recovery and Mount was back involved in team training this afternoon.
The 23-year-old undertook the warm-up and was seen at one point hopping off each foot, almost certainly in order to make sure he was pain-free.
"He's been out maybe a little bit too long to start [against Lille]," Tuchel said this afternoon. "Perhaps he is involved in the squad."
And Azpilicueta is involved
Due to a groin issue, Cesar Azpilicueta did not feature for Chelsea in the win over Crystal Palace on Saturday. Instead, Andreas Christensen filled in at right-back.
The Dane is a fine defender but a full-back he is not. And with Reece James not yet integrated back into the first-team fold after his hamstring tear, there was hope among Blues supporters that Azpilicueta would return ahead of the visit of Lille.
That has proved the case as the Chelsea skipper was part of the group that trained this afternoon at Cobham. He is almost guaranteed to start no matter what system Tuchel settles on.
Hudson-Odoi absent
Chelsea's head coach will not have a full squad from which to select his side for tomorrow evening's contest. Ben Chilwell is ruled out and James, as explained above, will also not be involved.
It's increasingly likely Callum Hudson-Odoi will also miss out. The winger was absent against Crystal Palace due to an Achilles issue and has not trained over the previous two days.
Given it was a ruptured Achilles that derailed the winger's rapid progress back in 2019, there will be no risks taken with Hudson-Odoi's comeback.
Lukaku all smiles
After Romelu Lukaku's disappointing display against Crystal Palace in which he touched the ball just seven times, much of the pre-match focus has been on the Belgian striker, who was signed from Inter Milan for £97.5million last summer.
Tuchel himself was asked in his press conference how he can get the best out of Lukaku. The Chelsea head coach's answer was not exactly convincing.
"What can I do? I don't know. Well, now we have to deal with it, the data is out there and speaks a certain language," the German said.
"He was not involved in our game, it's sometimes like this with strikers. If they struggle a bit with self-confidence, if they struggle a little bit to find the space and to get involved against a defensive side, it can be like this.
"It's of course not what we want and not what Romelu wants, but it's also not the time to laugh about him, make jokes about him. He's in the spotlight of course, and we will protect him."
To Lukaku's credit, he appeared unaffected by the discussion around his display. He cut a relaxed figure as he joined his teammates on the training pitches and appeared to share a joke with Hakim Ziyech.
If he is feeling under any pressure, Lukaku certainly does a good job of hiding it.
