This has not always been the Londoners’ luckiest time slot, though in May 2024, the 3-2 win at Nottingham Forest delivered our first victory on the road in three months.

The fixture that often settled title fights takes the world champions beyond the London A-Z for the first time domestically this season, and is the third of four successive away fixtures on all fronts, with Lincoln City our hosts on Tuesday in the Carabao Cup.

After losing to Grimsby Town in that competition and failing to secure a UEFA ticket last season, United have had a free week, while Enzo Maresca’s men played well but lost 3-1 at Bayern Munich on Wednesday evening.

The Londoners have lost just two of our past 14 top-flight fixtures following a European midweek, winning seven and drawing five, and have won two of the past three league matches against the Mancunians, drawing the other.

Having beaten United 1-0 at Stamford Bridge in May, Chelsea are targeting a second successive victory over the Red Devils for the first time since three on the spin under Carlo Ancelotti, from November 2009 to March 2011.

The history

This season marks the 120th anniversary of the first-ever league meeting between the glamour clubs of London and Manchester. The Division Two game at Bank Street on Christmas Day 1905 ended 0-0, Chelsea securing a point thanks in part to man-mountain goalie Willie Foulke, who intimidated Man Utd’s Bob Bonthron into putting his penalty kick wide.

Our first away win came in the top flight on 7 November 1908, "Gatling Gun" George Hilsdon dispatching his spot-kick with venom for the only goal of the game. The penalty was awarded for hand-ball – but only after the linesman intervened.

In January 1920, when fixtures were often paired back-to-back, the Londoners beat the Red Devils home and away with two clean sheets. Charismatic striker Jack Cock scored all the goals in 2-0 and 1-0 wins.

The Blues dominated these matches at Old Trafford between 1968 and 1977 – a very mixed era for both clubs – winning on five of our visits and drawing three.

In the modern age, from 2012 to 2017, Chelsea were unbeaten against the Mancunians for 12 meetings across all competitions. However, the last Chelsea player to score the goal that clinched all three points at Old Trafford in May 2013 was Juan Mata – who moved there the following January.

Last season this match ended in a 1-1 draw – Moises Caicedo equalising four minutes after Bruno Fernandes netted a penalty goal against the run of play.

Know this...

Chelsea are the joint-leading goal scorers in the Premier League with nine.

No-one has more top-flight goal involvements this season than Joao Pedro’s five (two goals, three assists) and the Brazilian has scored more times against United (five) than any other English team.

On average, Man Utd have found themselves in a losing position for 41 per cent of their time on the pitch in this season’s Premier League.

This is the Premier League’s most drawn fixture, with 27 deadlocked games – 14 of them in the North-West. Six United players were cautioned during last November’s 1-1.

Joe Cole and Didier Drogba were on target the last time the Blues scored more than one league goal at Old Trafford, a 2-1 win in April 2010.

Burnley (9.4), Aston Villa (7.4) and Wolves (7.2) are the only teams with a have a higher expected goals against total than the Mancunians’ 6.9.