The Croatian joins Ruben Loftus-Cheek in midfield ahead of Jorginho, with both Mason Mount and Ross Barkley dropping to the bench.

Toni Rudiger and Marcos Alonso are fresh faces in defence, while Olivier Giroud is selected up front. Andreas Christensen, Reece James and Tammy Abraham make way.

There is also a place on the bench for Fikayo Tomori, yet to play since the restart due to injury.

Norwich make four changes to the side that were beaten by West Ham on Saturday, three in attacking positions.

Chelsea (4-3-3): Kepa; Azpilicueta, Zouma, Rudiger, Alonso; Loftus-Cheek, Jorginho, Kovacic; Willian, Giroud, Pulisic

Subs: Caballero, Christensen, Tomori, James, Barkley, Mount, Hudson-Odoi, Pedro, Abraham.

Norwich (4-2-3-1): Krul; Aarons, Godfrey, Klose, Lewis; Tettey (c), McLean; Rupp, Cantwell, Hernandez; Drmic.

Subs: McGovern, Vranic, Buendia, Stiepermann, Trybull, Pukki, Idah, Thomas, Martin.

Stats recap

Chelsea are unbeaten in 16 matches in all competitions against Norwich, winning 11 and drawing five.

In the Premier League we have won nine and drawn two since our last defeat against Norwich, at Carrow Road in December 1994 when Jamie Cureton and a brace from Ashley Ward secured a 3-0 victory against Glenn Hoddle’s Blues.

The last occasion Norwich won at the Bridge was in October 1993 when Ruel Fox and Chris Sutton scored midway through each half. Gavin Peacock reduced the deficit late on from a Steve Clarke cross-header.

Since Norwich were last here for a league game in 2015, we have met in the third round of the FA Cup in 2017/18. Chelsea progressed on penalties after a replay at the Bridge.

Chelsea stats

Frank Lampard takes charge of a Blues team for the 50th occasion. He has a 53 per cent win rate.

Having equalled Didier Drogba’s 381 appearances for the club, Cesar Azpilicueta is set to become our outright second-highest overseas appearance maker behind Petr Cech (494).

Chelsea are aiming to win five consecutive home Premier League games for the first time since October-December 2017 when we achieved seven in a row when Antonio Conte was in charge.

Chelsea have lost 11 Premier League games this season, at least two more than any other team currently in the top-eight of the division and the most in a season since 2015/16 (12).

After a run of eight consecutive Premier League matches scoring at least two goals in each match, on Saturday Chelsea failed to score for the first time since losing 2-0 to Man Utd in February.

Olivier Giroud has scored four goals in his last five starts in the Premier League.

Willian has scored in each of our past four games at Stamford Bridge in all competitions.