The 12.30pm kick-off on Saturday is the latest instalment of a 121-year-old north/south rivalry. Halloween does not strictly start until sundown, but it’s a trick or treat lunch-time for two sides looking to make up for home losses last weekend.

While the clocks went back an hour last weekend it was more like eight years at the Bridge – the most recent time Spurs had triumphed at our west London citadel. Fright night came early for the Blues as the Lilywhites won for only the second time in 42 visits to the Bridge and we slipped to fifth as a result.

United’s bone-chiller was a 3-0 loss to Bournemouth at Old Trafford, days after a 4-1 Champions League calamity at Como. That leaves Michael Carrick’s side 16th in the Premier League, one point clear of the relegation zone and without a win in eight games across all competitions.

The Mancunians have gathered half-a-dozen league points fewer than at the same stage last season and are winless in six on all fronts on the road.

Chelsea’s most recent appearance in this early Saturday time-slot ended with a 2-0 victory at Everton – meaning we are now unbeaten in the past 11 such fixtures, winning nine.

While the world champions bowed out of the Carabao Cup on penalties at Liverpool on Wednesday, United had a free week, though they face a crucial European tie at home to Roma on Tuesday.

The corresponding fixture last season ended 1-0 to United – the Blues’ first home loss to the Red Devils in six years.

Chelsea have played United previously at the Bridge on Halloween in 2012 – the reigning European champions winning a nine-goal thriller in round four of the League Cup.

Cole Palmer is back from suspension to face opponents he loves to score against, and a win in the weekend-opener would lift Xabi Alonso’s side back into the top four.

Chelsea’s Saturday lunchtime matches – the history

Chelsea’s first Saturday 12.30pm kick-off, in January 2003, ended in a 2-1 loss at the home of this weekend’s visitors. Eidur Gudjohnsen opened the scoring for Claudio Ranieri’s team but Diego Forlan notched a last-minute winner.

Our first win in this time slot in September the same year was an emphatic one – a 5-0 walloping of Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux. Frank Lampard broke the deadlock and brilliant Argentina striker Hernan Crespo stole the show off the bench with a brace.

A 2-0 lunchtime win at Bolton in March 2004 (thanks to John Terry and Damien Duff) presaged the same scoreline there a year later when the Blues clinched the Premier League title.

The early kick-off against Charlton at the Bridge in May 2005 saw the champions win 1-0 after cult hero Claude Makelele was cajoled into taking a penalty, missed, but scored the rebound.

A year later we completed back-to-back title wins with a lunchtime leathering of rival challengers Man United. On a glorious afternoon at the Bridge, William Gallas lashed home to open the scoring, then Joe Cole dazzled defenders and fired past Edwin van der Sar, before Ricardo Carvalho capped a rare strike with a cigar-puffing celebration.

The weekend-opener on 3 December 2016 at the Etihad was another title statement – a 3-1 win that secured top spot for Antonio Conte’s side. Diego Costa, Willian and Eden Hazard found the net for the Londoners and City were shown two late red cards.

When Arsenal fell victim to the Blues in February 2017 the standout goal was Hazard’s extraordinary slalom run round most of their team. Marcos Alonso started the scoring and Cesc Fabregas finished it for a 3-1 result in the hosts’ favour.

Until the midday massacre of Norwich in October 2021 (featuring a Mason Mount hat-trick) the well-worked 4-0 beating of Brighton on their own patch in January 2018 was our biggest margin of victory in that TV slot. Once against it was Belgian maestro Hazard whose two goals inspired the Blues on the south coast.

The current run of no loss in 11 at this time on a Saturday began with a 3-2 win at Luton just after Christmas 2023, Palmer on target twice either side of Noni Madueke’s goal.

In that unbeaten sequence the Blues have beaten West Ham 3-2, Leicester 2-1, Forest 3-0, Burnley 2-0, Fulham twice (1-0 and 2-0) and likewise Everton - 1-0 and earlier this month 2-0 at the Hill Dickinson Stadium.

Know this…

- The Blues have committed the fewest fouls in the Premier League (79) apart from Everton (65).

- Man United have covered less ground than each Premier League opponent they have faced this season.

- The visitors have failed to keep a clean sheet in each of their last eight league fixtures.

- Michael Carrick’s team have conceded an equaliser on four of the five occasions they have taken the lead in the top flight.

- The Blues’ tally of seven shots attempted against Tottenham was our lowest in the Premier League since our May 2026 loss to Man City (also seven).

- Since Sir Alex Ferguson left Old Trafford in 2013, Man Utd have gained the fifth-most Premier League points (869), behind Chelsea in fourth (902).

- As this is the closest home match to 11 November, the club will mark Remembrance Day before kick-off.

- On 31 October 1913 Olympic medal-winning midfielder Nils Middelboe was transferred from BK Copenhagen to Stamford Bridge, where he captained the Blues and became English football’s first overseas star – ‘the Great Dane’.