More than three weeks have passed since the Blues were last in Premier League action, but our top-flight campaign resumes at Stamford Bridge as we welcome a Manchester City side that still harbours ambitions of claiming the title.

Both Chelsea and Pep Guardiola's side exited the Champions League in the Round of 16, but City have gone on to claim the League Cup and are continuing to fight on two more fronts for silverware.

Having defeated the Gunners and Liverpool in consecutive domestic cup matches, City now battle the world champions for Premier League points.

We will look to take all three to boost our UEFA Champions League qualification hopes, which have been aided by confirmation this week that a fifth-place finish will be enough to claim a place at the top table of European football next season.

Across all competitions, the Blues’ most recent victory against City remains May 2021’s Champions League triumph in Porto, weeks after a 2-1 away league success at the Etihad.

And the Mancunians have drawn their past two Premier League games (2-2 vs Nottingham Forest, 1-1 vs West Ham), despite scoring first in both.

The Blues, meanwhile, enter the game following back-to-back Premier League defeats. But we did record a comprehensive 7-0 victory over Port Vale last weekend to reach the FA Cup semi-finals.

The two most prolific passing sides in this season’s top flight now clash in what could potentially be the line-up in the May final of that competition.

The reverse fixture was in January – the first action of the second half of the campaign – when Chelsea were under Callum McFarlane’s temporary stewardship.

Tijjani Reijnders beat Filip Jorgensen for the opener but Chelsea, minus the suspended Moi Caicedo, were good value for the draw clinched by Enzo Fernandez’s stoppage-time strike.

Chelsea team news

Enzo Fernandez will not feature for the Blues in this game, but Liam Rosenior has confirmed Estevao Willian is in contention to start his first Premier League game since February 2 after coming through unscathed from his 90 minutes against Port Vale.

Trevoh Chalobah, Levi Colwill and captain Reece James will not be available against City. Yet the trio are making progress in their respective recoveries from injury.

The Blues head coach said: 'Trevoh is working really hard and is back on the pitch. Levi is training but still has some hurdles to overcome first, and Reece has been running today. None of them will be ready for Man City but they are working well.

‘We have a good squad and they look really, really good. I know it was a game we were expected to win [against Port Vale], but the way we went about things against Port Vale was very good and hopefully that springboards the rest of our run-in.’

The history

Last season, this fixture kicked off the Premier League campaign for the first time since 2006, when Chelsea ran out 3-0 winners. It was City's day last term, as they eased to a 2-0 win to maintain their current unbeaten run in west London.

Guardiola's side have won four of their last five league trips to Stamford Bridge, as many as they had in the previous 26 (a run which included 14 Blues wins and eight draws).

Two seasons ago, the two sides played out an epic 4-4 in SW6; Cole Palmer’s 95th-minute penalty secured a share of the spoils against his old club.

The scoring was opened via a disputed penalty converted by Erling Haaland, but the hosts rallied to equalise through Thiago Silva’s header before taking the lead through another ex-Citizen: Raheem Sterling.

City regained the initiative with Manuel Akanji’s header and Haaland’s bundled finish. Nicolas Jackson then levelled, only for Rodri to score a deflected effort with four minutes to play.

As the final whistle loomed, Armando Broja was felled by Ruben Dias, and the reaction to Palmer’s successful penalty conversion almost blew the roof off the Bridge.

Chelsea’s biggest home win against Man City came during Avram Grant’s stewardship in October 2007.

Michael Essien and Didier Drogba had the hosts 2-0 to the good at the break and, 15 minutes after the restart, the game was effectively put to bed by the Ivorian’s second and a Joe Cole finish.

In the final quarter-hour, Salomon Kalou and substitute Andriy Shevchenko made it half-a-dozen put past Joe Hart.

Know this…

Chelsea and Man City are level on 25 points earned away from home, the second-best record in the top flight behind leaders Arsenal.

Joao Pedro and Erling Haaland share a shooting accuracy of 47 per cent, but the Chelsea forward’s conversion rate of 24 per cent is higher than the City forward's (22 per cent).

In the top flight, only Elliott Anderson of Nottingham Forest has averaged more ball recoveries per 90 minutes (8.5) than Man City’s Rodri (7.0). Moises Caicedo averages 6.0.

Last weekend, Estevao became the first teenager to be directly involved in ten or more goals across all competitions for a Premier League side this season. The Brazilian prodigy has scored in every competition.

Gianluigi Donnarumma has made three errors leading to an opponent’s shot on goal this season, the most in the Premier League.

Fifty-six years ago this week, on 11 April 1970, BBC Radio 4’s Mary Raine became the first woman to provide a football report from an FA Cup final: Chelsea 2-2 Leeds.