Ashley Cole has won his race to play following yesterday's training knock on his ankle. In front of the full-back on the left wing, Florent Malouda has been selected in preference to Salomon Kalou.

Michael Essien will play right-back with the experienced threesome of Michael Ballack, Claude Makelele and Frank Lampard in midfield.

For Manchester United, Nemanja Vidic starts despite missing training yesterday.

Owen Hargreaves and Michael Carrick join Paul Scholes in midfield with the Ronaldo-Rooney-Tevez combination up front.

Chelsea will line-up in a 4-3-3 formation as follows:

1 Petr Cech
5 Michael Essien
6 Ricardo Carvalho
26 John Terry (c)
3 Ashley Cole
13 Michael Ballack
4 Claude Makelele
8 Frank Lampard
10 Joe Cole
11 Didier Drogba
15 Florent Malouda

Substitutes: 23 Carlo Cudicini, 35 Juliano Belletti, 33 Alex, 12 John Mikel Obi, 21 Salomon Kalou, 7 Andriy Shevchenko, 39 Nicolas Anelka.

Man United are expected to line-up in the following 4-3-3 formation:

Van der Sar; Brown, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra; Carrick, Hargreaves, Scholes; Ronaldo, Rooney, Tevez.

Subs: Kuszczak, O'Shea, Silvestre, Fletcher, Anderson, Nani, Giggs.

The referee is Lubos Michel of Slovakia.

Full commentary is available on Chelsea Plus. The game can be followed on this website via the Matchday Centre.