Chelsea handed Cole Palmer boost as Liam Rosenior offers fitness relief vs Aston Villa

Chelsea head coach Liam Rosenior confirmed that Cole Palmer is "absolutely fine" and is likely available for Wednesday's Premier League visit to Aston Villa.

There was a moment in the first half of Chelsea's defeat to Arsenal on Sunday when Palmer went down in the middle of the pitch and had to be checked by the medical team.

The Chelsea ace eventually stayed on the pitch until the 86th minute.

It raised some questions, of course. Did Palmer keep on playing because he was fine, or was it because Chelsea did not have a suitable replacement and needed to take risks in the hope of getting a result in the derby?

According to Rosenior, it was the former, and Palmer is expected to be in contention to start against fourth-placed Villa this mid-week.

"It wasn't," Rosenior said in his press conference on Monday when asked if Palmer went down due to another groin issue.

"He took a knock. He was absolutely fine.

"He's looking really good, I think you can see. I think you can see in the way we've managed him over the last six weeks and he played 83 minutes (against Arsenal).

"That was tactical. When I took him and Enzo (Fernandez) off, they were both on yellow cards, and I wanted (Alejandro) Garna and Liam (Delap) to come on and give us a freshness, which I felt they did.

"He (Palmer) is absolutely fine to start the game on Wednesday."

Rosenior also provided more positive updates on some other players.

"Getting closer. (Marc) Cucu is looking really good. Hopefully, we can get him back involved, if not for Wednesday, for Saturday, for sure, which is great for the schedule we've got coming up," he added.

"Estevao (Willian) is back on the pitch running, which is great.

"Jamie Gittens is doing really well.

"It's been brilliant to have Romeo Lavia get his first minutes in a long time. I felt he looked really strong.

"So, yeah, the quicker we get all of our players healthy, the better."