The 4.30pm kick-off will be the 15th of the 42 London derbies to be played this season. The world champions are unbeaten in the past eight neighbourly disputes, including the win at Tottenham Hotspur earlier this month.

By humbling the same north London rivals last weekend, Arsenal extended their lead at the top of the Premier League table to six points, with just under two thirds of the league campaign remaining.

Both teams were in UEFA Champions League action across the capital in midweek. On Tuesday, during the Blues’ 3-0 beating of La Liga champions Barcelona, Estevao Willian became only the third teenager after Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland to score in his opening three Champions League starts.

The following night, Arsenal inflicted a first defeat of the competition on Bayern Munich, the champions of Germany, at the Emirates Stadium.

Now comes this mouth-watering meeting of the English top flight’s most in-form sides, in lock-step over the past six games on wins and goals for and against.

The league leaders have claimed one point more in that spell, but it is Enzo Maresca’s team who are on a run of three wins without conceding a goal, opening the scoring in each of our past seven Premier League fixtures.

A derby win against our most enduring rivals at the Bridge – last secured in August 2018 – feels long overdue.

Team news

There was a big boost for the Blues as Enzo Maresca confirmed ahead of this game that Cole Palmer is back in training and ready to make his first appearance since September against Arsenal. Dario Essugo has also returned to training, but Levi Colwill and Romeo Lavia remain unavailable.

‘Yes, Cole is available for both to play and to start,’ the Italian revealed in his pre-match press conference. ‘We are looking okay after Barcelona. Dario Essugo also took part in the session on Friday morning, which is good news too.'

‘Having Cole back is good news and everyone is happy,’ added Maresca. ‘He can help us a lot. He is probably our best player and we are happy he is back. Now we have to give him time to be 100 per cent fit.'

Arsenal will be without Brazilian duo Gabriel Magalhaes and Gabriel Jesus, but they hope Kai Havertz, Leandro Trossard and Viktor Gyokeres could recover from injury in time to feature at Stamford Bridge.

The history

London’s oldest top-flight derby has often carried consequences for the destination of the title and this 98th meeting between Chelsea and Arsenal at Stamford Bridge pits second against first in the table.

The Blues have won the league six times, and in each of those seasons we were unbeaten in home league matches against the Gunners, winning the four most recent.

It was 90 years and one month ago that a 1-1 draw in this fixture at Stamford Bridge attracted an English-league-record crowd of 82,905. That is still the second-highest for a club playing in their permanent home.

In February 1991, goals from Kerry Dixon and Graham Stuart in a 2-1 win prevented the north Londoners completing the league season without defeat. Throughout the Nineties, even as success at Highbury proved elusive, the Gunners were beaten regularly, including a 1-0 win in September 1995, when mild-mannered Nigel Spackman was dismissed for striking Martin Keown.

However, since Arsenal last won the Premier League in 2004, Chelsea have had the edge in the encounters, with four more wins than the Gunners and eight more goals – plus five league titles. Included in that is the Blues’ first win in this fixture for 10 years, when Didier Drogba’s winner in August 2005 earned the elusive three points at the Bridge.

Famously, in March 2014, Chelsea also ruined Arsene Wenger’s 1,000th match in charge with a 6-0 demolition, with Oscar (two) and Mohamed Salah among the scorers. That was during Arsenal’s run of six losses in seven visits, the other being a draw.

Frustratingly the Blues have not won this fixture in west London since the Spanish trio of Pedro, Alvaro Morata and Marcos Alonso saw off the Gunners 3-2 in August 2018. Last season Pedro Neto scored Chelsea’s equaliser in a 1-1 draw.

Premier League Chelsea vs Arsenal derbies 2004-2025

Know this...

This is Chelsea’s most-played fixture, as we prepare for our 212th meeting with Arsenal since 1907.

These two teams jointly lead the way on headed goals with seven in this season’s top flight.

The Blues have recorded six clean sheets in this season’s Premier League, one fewer than the Gunners’ seven.

Only Aston Villa (164) have been fouled more often than Chelsea (148).

The Blues inflicted the first defeat of Mikel Arteta’s tenure at the Emirates Stadium in December 2019.

In total, 22 of the 82 high turnovers by the world champions in the league have led to a shot and two to a goal.

Up to and including the Sunderland match on Premier League matchday nine, Chelsea’s goal faced an average of 10.9 shots per game, but in the last three that has dropped to 4.7.

Premier League London derbies