Chelsea travel to Everton for a second successive 5.30pm kick-off (UK time) in the league, with three points vital to the world champions’ ambitions of a European place.

The Blues’ most recent away game in this time slot was a win at Tottenham earlier in the campaign, while our last victory in the blue half of Merseyside was a similar Saturday evening start in August 2022.

Now Chelsea will become the 18th visitors to the 52,700-seater Hill Dickinson, which has replaced Everton’s home for 133 years, Goodison Park.

David Moyes’ team have had a choppy debut season at their waterfront abode, unbeaten in five from the off before a winless run of six league matches up to beating Burnley 2-0 there last time out.

In fact, the rehoused Toffees’ home form currently ranks 14th-best in the top flight.

They are averaging marginally fewer points at their new ground (1.27 per game) than during their farewell to the old one (1.3), as well as in away games (1.60).

Premier League clubs' last season in old stadium and first in new

Everton enjoyed a free week after pushing Arsenal all the way in a 2-0 loss last weekend, while Chelsea followed Saturday’s disappointing defeat to Newcastle by exiting the Champions League to Paris Saint-German on Tuesday.

Everton away is rarely an easy fixture – and each of the our last nine defeats against the Toffees across all competitions since 2011 came at Goodison.

However, we also recorded four wins there in that time. Last season’s visit ended goalless.

Chelsea also won this season’s reverse fixture in the capital 2-0, with Malo Gusto assisting Cole Palmer and then scoring himself before the break.

Victory this weekend would complete our first league double over the Merseysiders since 2016/17.

Team news

Liam Rosenior confirmed in his pre-match press conference that while Trevoh Chalobah faces a significant spell on the sidelines, the injury he sustained against PSG is not as bad as it looked.

'It wasn’t until after the game that I saw the image [of the tackle] and then you’re really worried for the next day,' said Rosenior.

'Obviously, it’s never good that Trevoh is out for any period of time, but fortunately, it’s not as serious as we first feared.

'It's still a serious injury but we're looking at a period of six weeks, which is disappointing but from where we were a couple of days ago, straight after the game, we are in a better place than we thought.'

The head coach also updated on Filip Jorgensen and Reece James, who picked up injuries in matches last week.

'Unfortunately, Filip had his scan and needed a minor operation,' said Rosenior. 'Nothing too serious again, it's a matter of weeks.

'With Reece, we're going to look more after the international break. It's not serious, but there is something in his hamstring [scan] and it's something we'll monitor after the international break.'

Chelsea vs Everton – the history

Chelsea played 94 matches at Everton’s previous home, Goodison Park, recording 22 wins, 27 draws, and a hefty 45 defeats.

Our first venture there came in Division One on 1 April 1908, ‘Gatling Gun‘ George Hilsdon chewing up the Toffees’ defence with a well-taken hat-trick without reply for 3-0.

Our next league win took another ten years, but the 3-2 result on the opening day of 1919/20 was one of the biggest shocks ever in this fixture.

Everton were reigning champions since the Football League’s wartime suspension in 1915. Chelsea, relegated at the same time, had only just been reinstated to the top flight in redress for a match-fixing scandal involving Liverpool and Man United that had sealed the Pensioners’ fate.

More recently, between a professional 2-1 in 1969 and a crazy 4-3 in 1984, the Everton ground was the graveyard to any Chelsea ambitions.

Then, between losses in 2000 and 2010, it was our turn to dominate the spoils at the home of the Toffees. In that period Chelsea managed six victories and remained unbeaten in ten visits across all competitions.

The memorable 6-3 thriller in August 2014 – Diego Costa scoring two for the visitors – was a result that would have delighted our Life Vice President, Lord ‘Dickie’ Attenborough, who had recently died.

Our most recent success at Everton came in August 2022 through Jorginho’s unanswered penalty after Abdoulaye Doucoure fouled Ben Chilwell.

Know this…

Chelsea have won three of our last four Premier League matches away from Stamford Bridge.

Joao Pedro has been involved in eight goals in his past eight appearances on the road across all competitions (seven goals, one assist).

Everton are one of three Premier League clubs against whom Cole Palmer has scored the most goals of his career (five), the others being Brighton and Wolves.

Chelsea have netted 305 times against the Toffees across all competitions – 23 more than our next highest, Tottenham (282).

This is Chelsea’s first visit to the Hill Dickinson Stadium, and our ninth trip to a Premier League club playing in a newly-built stadium. The Blues are undefeated in the last six, winning five of them.

We recorded 40 attempts on goal against Newcastle (22) and PSG (18) without finding the net – our highest tally in back-to-back games without scoring since Liverpool (20) and Fulham (25) in January 2011.