Mauricio Pochettino has insisted Chelsea will play 'their best team' against Blackburn Rovers and reiterated the importance of progressing in the Carabao Cup.

Rovers travel to Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night looking to pull off a major cup upset. Jon Dahl Tomasson's side beat two Premier League sides last season, West Ham United and then Leicester City in the FA Cup.

Chelsea are obviously massive favourites to reach round five and Pochettino stressed the importance of the competition to the club. After a poor start to the season in the Premier League, including a 2-0 defeat to Brentford at the weekend, the Blues boss plans to rotate some players but still name a strong side.

"It's very important to us," Pochettino said. "I said at the start of the season that this and the FA Cup is very important to us.

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"Tomorrow, we will play with our best team. Some players we maybe need to rest because after Saturday we can't take some risks.

"We are going to try and put out our best team. It's important for us to go through to the next round of the competition and build momentum.

"Some players we can't risk with injury but we will be taking it very seriously as always. It's a competition we can go far in."

Pochettino confirmed club captain and England international Reece James will start the game at right-back after injury. Enzo Fernandez is also available again and could return in midfield.

Mykhailo Mudryk, Armando Broja, Ben Chilwell, Christopher Nkunku, Romeo Lavia, Trevoh Chalobah, Carney Chukwuemeka and Wesley Fofana are all out due to varying degrees of injury leaving Pochettino with a youthful-looking bench.

Raheem Sterling, Nicolas Jackson, Marc Cucurella and Nicolas Jackson could all start at Stamford Bridge. On James, he said: “I can confirm he is going to start [vs Blackburn]. 

"I want to confirm only one player but it is good for the team, it is good for him to start from the beginning of the game.”

Tomasson will make alterations to his side but captain Lewis Travis will start after returning from a calf injury.