Ricardo Carvalho returns in central defence and Deco is preferred to Joe Cole at the front of the midfield diamond.

Branislav Ivanovic continues at right-back with Ashley Cole at left back having missed the two previous league games.

With Nicolas Anelka back in the side, the attack returns to a front-two pairing following the Christmas tree used in Madrid. Michael Ballack, a substitute in Spain, is back in the starting line-up.

For Man United, there is no Dimitar Berbatov nor Nemanja Vidic in the starting line-up.

The Bulgarian striker hasn't recovered from the knock that kept him out of midweek Champions League action and the Serb centre-back is on the bench.

Nani is absent as well so Ryan Giggs appears set to play on the left of a five-man midfield with Wayne Rooney on his own up front.

Chelsea will line up in a 4-diamond-2 formation as follows:

1 Petr Cech
2 Branislav Ivanovic
6 Ricardo Carvalho
26 John Terry (c)
3 Ashley Cole
5 Michael Essien
13 Michael Ballack
8 Frank Lampard
20 Deco
39 Nicolas Anelka
11 Didier Drogba

Substitutes: 40 Hilario, 19 Paulo Ferreira, 33 Alex, 12 John Mikel Obi, 15 Florent Malouda, 10 Joe Cole, 21 Salomon Kalou.

Man United are expected to line up in the following 4-5-1 formation:

Van der Sar; O'Shea, Brown, Evans, Evra; Valencia, Fletcher, Carrick, Anderson, Giggs (c); Rooney.

Substitutes: Kuszcak, Fabio, Gibson, Vidic, Obertan, Scholes, Owen.

The referee is Martin Atkinson.

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