N'Golo Kante's return, Olivier Giroud's hilarious moment - 4 things learnt in Chelsea training

N'Golo Kante during a rondo drill at training on Tuesday

There are 11 days to go until Chelsea's first Premier League game post-coronavirus and Frank Lampard is getting his squad primed for battle with Aston Villa away the first of nine remaining fixtures.

A friendly against Queens Park Rangers has been planned for later this week but for now it is more hard work on the training.

Kante is back

The obvious headline was the first pictures of the France World Cup winner back in full training having been working out alone because of health concerns during the past fortnight.

It is unclear if he will be fit enough or indeed comfortable with being part of the squad for the first game back, away to Aston Villa on Sunday week, but it is a very encouraging sign to see him smiling and getting stuck in.

Spirits are high

Speaking of smiles, one immediately noticeable thing about the images circulated of today's session is how happy everyone looks.

There is one shot of Olivier Giroud and Michy Batshuayi where both strikers have ear-to-ear grins with Kurt Zouma, Marcos Alonso, Ross Barkley and Cesar Azpilicueta all much amused in the background.

The Frenchman nutmegged the Belgian with a tidy flick during a rondo before racing away, much to the hilarity of their team-mates.

Another picture shows the squad side by side cheering towards the cameraman.

Spirits being high can only be a good thing.

Rondos are key but an emphasis on finishing too

There was plenty of focus on passing with shots of the players in rondos - that Giroud nutmeg happened during one - but the team were also working on their finishing - an area that has frustrated Lampard throughout the campaign as his team regularly failed to convert after doing all the hard build-up work.

The head coach will be hoping they are more clinical upon the restart.

Gloves are on

While the players were working on their agility in an exercise involving hoops and cones, it was hard not to miss that they were all wearing protective latex gloves.

Things may look normal but there are still some big differences to how it was before.