This weekend Chelsea, the Premier League’s top-ranked home team, take on Burnley, the top-flight’s third-lowest-ranked visiting side. It is the Blues’ third consecutive league game against a bottom three team, and the Londoners are aiming for a fifth win in a row against the Lancastrians.

As the high rates of Covid have put paid to the usual much-loved 5 November displays at Ravenscourt Park and Bishops Park, it might be down to Chelsea to provide the west London fireworks this weekend. The Blues are aiming for a fifth straight victory in the top flight. The previous four racked up 14 goals, including seven against Norwich at Stamford Bridge last time around.

Although the Clarets have lost 10 of their past 14 league encounters with the Blues, three of the four in which they achieved a result came in London. They love nothing better than to make a bonfire of other clubs’ vanities.

While taking nothing for granted at the Bridge, the champions of Europe could head into the last international break of the year with a plumper cushion than the current three points. One or both of the Manchester clubs must drop derby points at Old Trafford, and on Sunday afternoon Liverpool are at West Ham, who are as much bubbly as ‘bubbles’ at the moment.

Meanwhile, in a sure sign we are entering the heart of the season, the Nike Flight match ball changes to its winter livery, this year inspired by 1960s pop art. An early ‘Whaam!’ would be handy on Saturday: Chelsea have won eight of the nine games in which we have taken the lead, while Burnley have lost five in six when conceding first.

Chelsea team news

Chelsea, the Premier League’s most in-form team, return to the Fulham Road on the back of our biggest win on Tyneside for 10 years and a victory at Malmo that puts us very close to the knockout rounds of the Champions League.

Both successes were hard-earned, with plenty of chances created and more goals there for the taking. What more is there to say about Reece’s pieces of magic at St James’? His first brace for the club showcased stunning technique as well as the flexibility of Thomas Tuchel’s approach. James and Ben Chilwell have scored seven between them.

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During our 10th win in 14 away league games under the Bavarian, Jorginho became the first player in Premier League history to record 10 goals in succession which were all from the penalty spot. However all squad members are mucking in while Mateo Kovacic, Romelu Lukaku and Timo Werner are absent.

In both games it was Callum Hudson-Odoi who again made the first surgical incision. Whether on the left or right, his crosses and precision passes drew first blood through James and Hakim Ziyech, who on Tuesday put in his best display since his shoulder setback in the UEFA Super Cup game.

With less pacy wing-backs on the field in Sweden, we switched to two right-footed wide players on the right and likewise on the left, quicker to get in behind and less inclined to check back into traffic.

The Clarets present similar challenges as the past two opponents but are far more physically intense. We may see Ruben Loftus-Cheek retain his place to help disrupt their low block with fast passing and switching, finding space behind their rearguard. N’Golo Kante is also likely to be available again and Christian Pulisic came off the bench in midweek, though Mason Mount may need time to recover from illness.

Last season’s 2-0 win over Burnley was a decent victory blueprint. For Tuchel’s second match and first victory, the front three drifted centrally, forcing the Clarets’ back four to go narrow, and opening wide areas for wing-backs Marcos Alonso and Hudson-Odoi. Centre-backs were licensed to join attacks to help overload the visitors’ blanket defence, and it was Cesar Azpilicueta who opened the scoring.

For Saturday, Tuchel will select a backline to command the aerial battles, stop Burnley’s crosses and reduce their opportunities for in-swinging set-plays.

He will also hope to see a continuation of efficiency in front of goal. The Blues have hit 16 goals in the opening five Premier League games at home – matching our best tally set in 2010/11. We have only ever bettered that twice previously in the top flight: 17 in 1959/60 and 22 in 1958/59.

Burnley blocks

The only guarantees with Sean Dyche’s Burnley are that they will be aggressive, direct and hard to beat. They have earned three draws in their past six outings and are organisationally strong, alternating between a low block approach and high pressing through hard-working Chris Wood and leading scorer Maxwel Cornet.

The Clarets are comfortable without the ball – only Newcastle have lower average possession – and no rival blocks as many shots, clears their lines as quickly, or has a lower passing accuracy. Their banks of four are cleverly marshalled to limit shooting opportunities.

Only our previous two opponents, Newcastle and Norwich, have a worse league points record on the road this season than Dyche’s men, however, and they have not scored in the last half-hour of any away match. As able as they are on offensive set-pieces – the source of three of their 10 league goals – only four teams have been more susceptible when defending them.

The Lancastrians’ 3-1 beating of Brentford last weekend is their only win of the campaign so far (and first at home since January). Chelsea’s wide defenders are not the only ones making hay at the moment: Burnley right-back Matt Lowton helped set up one and scored another from left-back Charlie Taylor’s cross. Their third was claimed by leading scorer Cornet, the Ivory Coast forward signed from Lyon, where he was a left-back.

All three strikes came in the opening 36 minutes, and the Lancastrians are quick out of the blocks, pressuring high upfield with long balls and physical intensity. They rank fifth on big chances missed with 14 in 10 games (four of them by Woods), are the most offside club in the top tier, and have lost each of the last three games against the Blues without scoring.

At the Etihad last month, Manchester City were able to weather the early Burnley storm, play through the press, punish errors and find their mark with efficiency. Chelsea will have to do the same against a team with one clean sheet to their name this term.

Mean starters

It is not quite Christmas but Chelsea are playing Scrooge where goals are concerned, with three conceded in 10 matches played. That is half the tally of next-best Manchester City and five fewer than Liverpool.

It is not the best-ever record, though. That honour belongs to Petr Cech, John Terry and co., beaten just twice by the same stage in 2004/05. The current number equals the second best, set in 2010/11 under Carlo Ancelotti. Chelsea make up six of the 14 teams to have let in four or fewer since 1992/93 (the other three Blues seasons were 1999/00, 2005/06 and 2008/09, all with four conceded).

Saturday, 3pm

This is the Blues’ second successive 3pm kick-off in the league. The last time that happened was August 2016, and the later of the two was a 3-0 home win over Burnley.

After a lockdown season where every match was televised, the Premier League has reverted to the age-old curfew on live coverage between 2.45pm and 5.15pm on a Saturday. Moments missed by the cameras include Ronaldo’s debut and Chelsea’s visit to under-new-owners Newcastle.

This will be Burnley’s seventh non-televised game in a row and they can thank the Lord for that: Bob Lord, that is. Sixty years ago, the Turf Moor chief convinced fellow Football League chairmen that showing games live would have a negative impact on concurrent attendances and income, and the exclusion zone was voted into place.

New name on WW1 Roll of Honour

Chelsea will mark Remembrance on Saturday and, thanks to painstaking research by members of the Chelsea Graves Society and others, we are able to add a new name to the list commemorating those sadly killed during World War One.

The player is Frank O’Hara, a Scottish centre-forward with the rare distinction of playing more FA Cup than league matches for the Pensioners. Both came in Chelsea’s maiden season, 1905/06, and one of the cup fixtures was the infamous occasion we were forced to field two teams at the same time, same day, in different competitions.

O’Hara was in the second-string beaten 7-1 at Crystal Palace in the cup, and was responsible for the visitors’ consolation. That was his third strike in that competition, making him Chelsea’s top scorer in our maiden FA Cup campaign. One further first-team appearance came in April in the league, a 1-3 defeat to Gainsborough that helped end the Pensioners’ faltering promotion challenge. He was released a month later aged 23.

When war broke out, O’Hara was 31 and working at a Coatbridge ironworks. He swiftly rose to Lance Corporal in the Highland Light Infantry, but became one of 4,000 casualties of the ill-fated attack on the heights of Achi Baba at Gallipoli. Frank was ‘presumed dead’ on 12 July 1915 and is memorialised at Cape Helles.

Click to read more about how Chelsea coped during World War One, and to see the Roll of Honour

Matchweek 11 Premier League fixtures

FridaySouthampton v Aston Villa 8pm (Sky Sports)

SaturdayMan Utd v Man City 12.30pm (Sky Sports)Brentford v Norwich 3pmChelsea v Burnley 3pmCrystal Palace v Wolves 3pmBrighton v Newcastle 5.30pm (BT Sport)

SundayArsenal v Watford 2pm (Sky Sports)Everton v Tottenham 2pmLeeds v Leicester 2pmWest Ham v Liverpool 4.30pm (Sky Sports)