As a club that's had a bad weekend hosts a club that's enduring a bad season, Chelsea club historian Rick Glanvill and club statistician Paul Dutton prepare.

Rick ponders the state of mind of the two teams.

You might say that Derby County's season has a lot in common with Baldrick's self-penned diary. As Blackadder noted, 'It started badly, it tailed off a little in the middle and the less said about the end the better, but apart from that it was excellent.'
Before their first win of the campaign - a 1-0 home victory against Newcastle in mid-September - they had already lost 0-4 to Spurs and shipped six at Anfield.

That was followed immediately with humiliation at Arsenal, who hit five without reply. Then after a heartening draw with fellow strugglers Bolton came a sequence of seven games without scoring. That spell included the 0-2 home defeat by ten-man Chelsea and another 0-5 drubbing, at home to West Ham.

The barren spell ended when a consolation goal was scored in a 1-4 loss at Old Trafford. It also spanned a change of manager, with Billy Davies performing professional suicide in the press conference after Chelsea's comfortable win.

He was imploring Derby's board to sit down and talk with him about new investment to raise the quality of the squad that had earned him promotion the previous May.

Paul Jewell, out of football since leaving Wigan Athletic six months earlier, was the man handed the poison chalice of a club already apparently doomed.

When January arrived Jewell's mobile was one of the busiest, fixing transfers out as well as into the Midlands club. While the likes of Andy Griffin, Jon Macken and Matt Oakley left Pride Park, experienced Premier League names such as Laurent Robert, Hossan Ghaly, Alan Stubbs, Robbie Savage, Danny Mills and Roy Carroll were lured in.

He also gambled on £2m Argentina striker Emanuel Villa, who has scored one goal in eight appearances, and journeyman Australia international Mile Sterjovski, 28.

With League results barely improving, a new low was reached when County were dumped out of the FA Cup by Preston, 1-4.

'Some of the mistakes we make and some of the stuff that goes on beggars belief,' said Jewell afterwards. They have drawn two and lost three games since, so that triumph against Newcastle remains unique going into the final ten matches.

No prizes for guessing how Derby's post-relegation 'parachute payment' will be spent. The existing playing staff have already read in their local paper that the squad will be completely reshaped in the summer, with '13 or 14 transactions'.

Jewell, his staff and worldwide scouts have been window-shopping regularly. It's hard to imagine what the mindsets of the team running out tonight will be after such a battering of a season. If this was kids' football they would have picked up their jumpers and taken the ball home with them weeks ago.

And then onto the field walks a load of big boys with a lot of shame and anger to work out of their system in Chelsea. Avram Grant will not be required to give a pre-match pep talk for this one, with 5,000 irate fans who travelled to Oakwell wanting to see things put right on the pitch tonight. Chelsea need to show that pedigree counts for something after the Barnsley debacle.

Never the less, we know Jewell will have done his usual fastidious preparation to expose the weaknesses found by Tottenham and Barnsley. And his team will be desperate to avoid the stigma of gaining the fewest points over a Premier League season. That dishonour is currently Sunderland's with 15 in 2005/6; County currently have 10.

Finally, we've been keeping tabs as usual on clubs' performances between November and February - the period when the yellow ball has been used in Premier League matches since 2004/5. On completion of the 2007/8 games, Chelsea are second in the table with 150 points, 10 behind 'winter champs' Manchester United on 160. Liverpool are third placed with 130 and Arsenal back in fourth on 125 points.

Derby's tally - they're bottom having competed in just one relevant season - is just three points, with a goal difference of -25. That's 100 fewer than Chelsea's 75.


CHELSEA V DERBY COUNTY - Paul Dutton with the statistics behind the third v bottom clash.

Chelsea are hoping to extend our record unbeaten league run at Stamford Bridge to 77 games. Our last defeat was against Arsenal on February 21st 2004.

In the same period we have not lost at Stamford Bridge in 96 domestic matches if penalty shoot-outs are excluded.

We are also looking to extend our club unbeaten record at Stamford Bridge in all competitions to 61 games since our last defeat on February 22nd 2006 when Barcelona beat a ten-man Chelsea 2-1 in the Champions League. That has been our only home defeat in the last 119 games since February 2004.

Chelsea have won three of the last eight games in all competitions.

Derby have won three points from a possible 42 on their travels this season and have scored just five goals.

They have used more players than any other club - 34. A total of 27 have played for Chelsea in the league this season.

Derby have drawn four and lost 10 of 14 since the arrival of Paul Jewell.

Chelsea have won the last seven games against Derby at Stamford Bridge with scoring an aggregate 21 to five.

Derby's last beat us in October 1999 when Deon Burton and a brace from Rory Delap secured a 3-1 score line at Pride Park. Frank Leb?uf scored for the Blues.

They last left with all three points from Stamford Bridge in February 1983 in the old Second Division. A sparse crowd of 8,661 witnessed Derby's first away win of the season - 3-1, with goals from Archie Gemmill and two own goals from keeper Steve Francis and John Bumstead. Colin Pates scored our consolation.

The Rams were on their way to their second League Championship 33 years ago in March 1975 when the Rams last won here in the top flight. The scorers were Peter Daniel and Alan Hinton for Derby and John Hollins for the Blues.

The Rams' last away win (excluding penalty shoot-outs) came at Southampton in the play-offs at the end of last season and will be looking for their first away victory in 15 attempts.

Chelsea have been beaten four times (Man Utd away, Arsenal away, Tottenham at Wembley and Barnsley away) in 38 games in all competitions under Avram Grant in a run that has seen 26 wins and 24 clean sheets.

Chelsea have played 46 games in all competitions winning 29, drawing 12 and losing five. We have scored 75 goals, conceded 29 and have kept 26 clean sheets. We have failed to score on 10 occasions.

Our Premier League record against Derby at Stamford Bridge is as follows:
1996/97 Chelsea won 3-1
1997/98 Chelsea won 4-0
1998/99 Chelsea won 2-1
1999/00 Chelsea won 4-0
2000/01 Chelsea won 4-1
2001/02 Chelsea won 2-1

Derby's away league record is won none, lost 11 (Man City 0-1, Tottenham 0-4, Liverpool 0-6, Arsenal 0-5, Reading 0-1, Aston Villa 0-2, Sunderland 0-1, Man Utd 1-4, Bolton 0-1, Portsmouth 1-3, Wigan 0-2) and drawn three (Fulham 0-0, Newcastle 2-2, Birmingham 1-1).

Derby's last six games
Jan 26 Preston (FA Cup h) L 1-4
Jan 30 Man City (h) D 1-1
Feb 2 Birmingham (a) D 1-1
Feb 9 Tottenham (h) L 0-3
Feb 23 Wigan (a) L 0-2
Mar 1 Sunderland (h) D 0-0

The Rams have played 32 games in all competitions winning one, losing 21 and drawing 10. They have scored 19 goals, conceded 66, have kept three clean sheets and failed to score on 17 occasions.

Derby's last outing 10 days ago against Sunderland at Pride Park saw their first clean sheet since October.
Team Carroll; Edworthy, Moore, Stubbs (c), McEveley; Sterjovski (Fagan 66), Jones (Ghaly 57), Pearson, Lewis; Miller (Earnshaw 80), Villa.

Premier League scorers:
Chelsea (42): Lampard 6 (2 pens), Drogba 5, Kalou 5, Ballack 4 (1 pen), J Cole 4, Shevchenko 4 (1 pen), Essien 3, Alex 2, Belletti 2, Pizarro 2, Wright-Phillips 2, Anelka 1, A Cole 1, Malouda 1.
Derby (13): Miller 3, Oakley 3, Barnes 1, Howard 1, McEveley 1, Nyatanga 1, Todd 1, Villa 1, own goal 1 (Jihai, Man City).

Two other Premier League games are being played on Wednesday: Aston Villa v Middlesbrough and Portsmouth v Birmingham (both 7.45pm).

After the few Premier League games last weekend the top is more fascinating than ever:
Arsenal P29, 66 pts
Man Utd P28, 64 pts
Chelsea P27, 58 pts
Liverpool P29, 56pts
Everton P29, 56pts

Derby have 10 points from 28 games and still require six points to avoid the lowest points total in Premier League history.

Congratulations to Didier Drogba who celebrated his 30th birthday yesterday (Tuesday).

There are no suspensions on either side.

The referee is Chris Foy, who stewarded our 4-0 at Hull City in the League Cup, Avram Grant's first win as Chelsea manager.

Derby have won the old First Division twice in 1972 and 1975 under managers Brian Clough and Dave Mackay.

Chelsea's overall record against Derby in all competitions is: played 103, won 36, drawn 29, lost 38.

Head-to-head in the league at Stamford Bridge: played 46, won 20, drawn 15, lost 11.

OUR LAST MEETING AT STAMFORD BRIDGE
Chelsea 2 Derby 1
Premier League, Saturday March 30th 2002
Chelsea (4-4-2) Cudicini; Melchiot, Gallas (Terry h/t), Desailly (c), Le Saux; Grønkjær, Lampard, Petit, Stanic (Zola 71); Gudjohnsen (Forssell 71), Hasselbaink.
Manager Claudio Ranieri.
Booked Lampard, Le Saux, Hasselbaink
Scorers Terry (49), Petit (85)
Derby (4-4-2) Oakes; Barton (c), Riggott, Higginbotham, Zavagno (Elliott 89); Kinkladze, Lee, Valakari, Boertien; Strupar (Morris 85), Ravanelli.
Manager John Gregory.
Booked Zavagno, Riggott, Valakari, Lee
Scorer Strupar (59)
Referee Mike Dean.
Crowd 37,849.
Grønkjær went off injured after 76 minutes so we completed the game with 10 men as all three subs had been used.

If you have any Chelsea-related statistical questions, email statman@chelseafc.com and Paul will attempt to answer them in a monthly feature.