Xabi Alonso has put the Chelsea players through their paces ahead of Saturday night's clash against Tottenham Hotspur. The Blues have been working hard at Cobham training ground as they prepare to host Roberto De Zerbi's side at Stamford Bridge.

Last weekend, Chelsea climbed to fourth in the Premier League following a 2-0 win over Everton. Then, on Monday evening, the Lilywhites clambered out of the relegation zone with a 3-1 victory against Coventry City.

Although Spurs may be on cloud nine after banking their first three points of the season, the Blues have won each of the last six meetings. The Tottenham boss has also never beaten Alonso in a competitive fixture, having lost the only encounter, when Real Madrid beat Marseille in the Champions League 'league phase' last year.

De Zerbi and the Chelsea manager did, however, lock horns in a pre-season friendly earlier this year. In what was just Alonso's second game in charge, Richarlison, who, ironically, has since been exiled from the squad, scored a stoppage-time winner at the Accor Stadium in Sydney.

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The Blues have since progressed under the Spaniard, while the Lilywhites remain embroiled in a fight for top-flight survival. So, with that being said, football.london has looked at five things you may have missed in Chelsea training this week.

Neto given guard of honour

Pedro Neto was given a guard of honour earlier this week for his contributions in the win over Everton at the Hill Dickinson Stadium on Saturday afternoon. The winger fired Chelsea to victory in Merseyside with two brilliantly taken strikes, so his teammates subsequently sent him down a tunnel of slaps.

Hato in great spirits

Jorrel Hato appeared to be in great spirits at Cobham this week. The defender was superb for Chelsea at the weekend, too, replacing Pep Chavarria in the starting lineup at late notice.

Three Chelsea youngsters involved

Mahdi Nicoll-Jazuli, who was recently named in the matchday squad, Reggie Watson, and Olutayo Subuloye were all involved in first-team training this week. The 'Cobham Next Gen' and the Chelsea Under-18s both also have games on Saturday afternoon, 2pm at Kingsmeadow and 12pm at the training ground, respectively, so it seems unlikely they will travel to face Tottenham, though not impossible, of course!

Penders thrown into the deep end

Mike Penders was thrown into the deep end in training this week. The Chelsea goalkeeper was included in a small-sided game with the rest of the outfield players; interestingly, he was the only player to be spotted wearing a fluorescent yellow bib, with one team in orange and the other in white.

In an extreme test of his footwork, Penders may have been the designated 'magic man', which is a role that gives a player the freedom to play on the team in possession during a particular exercise. In doing so, it helps to create overloads, encourages snappy passing, quick decision-making, and clever movement into pockets of space, while also simulating small-scale transitions and turnovers.

Alonso probably anticipates De Zerbi's side to launch a high press at the weekend, so he'll want Penders to be confident with his feet in difficult close-quarter situations.

Gusto and Chavarria still absent

Malo Gusto and Chavarria were absent from the latest batch of training pictures and videos published by in-house media. The former suffered an injury in the build-up to last weekend's clash, while the latter, who travelled to Merseyside, fell ill at the eleventh hour.