The Premier League returns to Stamford Bridge early this weekend, with all its issues, good and bad, yet to be resolved. Fourth-placed Chelsea and relegation-haunted West Bromwich both need to take something from a match that is bound to be furiously contested. Both coaches have sorted out mid-season defensive concerns but still hope for more decisiveness upfront.

The rest of April brings six further matches, one of them at the Bridge, three elsewhere in the capital, including Man City in the FA Cup, but starting with a quarter-final rendezvous against Porto on Wednesday.

Chelsea have now reached the last four of one or more competitions in 25 of the last 31 seasons, and know what it takes for hopefuls to become winners.

Only Manchester City (with 21) have now let in fewer league goals this season than Chelsea’s 25, and Thomas Tuchel is the first coach to secure clean sheets in his first five home league games since the Premier League began.

Already responsible for a club-record start in the dugout of 14 games unbeaten, the Bavarian could steer his Blues side to an eighth successive clean sheet in all competitions, a first in Chelsea’s history.

The Throstles and their wily coach Sam Allardyce, meanwhile, are aware they have to start winning soon if they are to emulate their ‘great escape’ forebears of 2004/05. But they have not won at the Bridge since 1978 – our oldest unbeaten league run against current top-flight clubs.

Chelsea team news

Thomas Tuchel’s first concern following club football’s last pause of the season will be the freshness and fitness of his returning internationals. N’Golo Kante and Callum Hudson-Odoi were among those who came back early to sun-drenched Cobham with injuries. All hands will be required on deck as the Londoners navigate the potentially glorious last quarter of the season.

Chelsea are the only club to have been scheduled twice for the early Saturday kick-off straight after an international break this campaign, but are unbeaten in four matches in the time slot to date. This will be West Brom’s first game for three weeks.

When we left off two weeks ago, almost 11-and-a-half hours had passed in all competitions since a Chelsea goalkeeper had conceded a goal, Hakim Ziyech was showing great form with goals in successive cup competitions, including his first at the Bridge, and Ben Chilwell had a hand in both goals against Sheffield United.

Tuchel will be relieved to see Thiago Silva back in training this week along with Tammy Abraham, both having been out since February. Abraham’s last-gasp equaliser in the reverse fixture at the Hawthorns, which ended 3-3, felt like a winner after the Blues had trailed the Baggies 0-3 inside half an hour.

The turnaround also reflected both teams’ habits this seasons: West Brom have scored fewer second-half goals and conceded more than any other Premier League side this season.

Conversely, no side has conceded fewer goals after the break than Chelsea (10), while 27 of the Blues’ 44 league strikes have come during the second 45.

This fixture falls at Easter, a weekend over which Chelsea have not won since April 2015, when Stoke were seen off 2-1 at the Bridge. Eden Hazard put away a penalty and set up Loic Remy’s winner, but the game is most usually mentioned for Charlie Adam’s 65-yard lob over Thibaut Courtois.

A good start would be rediscovering the net-finding efficiency that made the Blues leading scorers earlier this season. The Londoners have scored at least once in each of the past 23 home league games against the Baggies, a run stretching back to the 1960s, and have not conceded at the Bridge in the league since Tuchel took over.

Baggies look for bounce

Sam Allardyce has never been relegated from the top flight as a coach. He is unbeaten in his past three meetings with Chelsea and beat the Londoners with Crystal Palace in 2016/17 and Sunderland the previous season on the way to avoiding the drop.

The Throstles have improved significantly since he took over a team that had conceded a staggering 55 goals in 23 games. Allardyce switched from a back-three to the 4-1-4-1 he often favoured as Everton coach after just 20 minutes of a crunch match with Fulham.

He may use a more dogged 5-4-1 on Saturday, with Mbaye Diagne the outlet. However, his very effective tactical ploy against Antonio Conte’s Chelsea was to have his Palace strikers stay very wide to draw the back three out of position, then release runners in behind. Whatever else, Albion seem likely to defend deep and hope to strike on the break.

Defensive midfielder Okay Yokuslu has imposed himself on games since arriving on loan from Celta Vigo, with the youthful vigour of Conor Gallagher and Ainsley Maitland-Niles alongside. The impressive Chelsea loanee is not allowed to play against his parent club, of course, so Allardyce will have to change his line-up after starting the same 11 in the past four fixtures.

West Brom have produced pressure on themselves at times, such as Palace’s match–winning penalty handball last time out. Going forward, it is getting on for six hours since they found the net. They have lowest chance-creation in the top flight and second fewest forward passes.

To evade the drop this time, the Baggies’ manager has targeted six wins from the remaining nine against the Blues, Southampton, Leicester, Villa, Wolves, Arsenal, Liverpool, West Ham and Leeds. Make no mistake, he will be thinking this has to be one of that half-dozen.

Albion’s escapologists

Only nine teams have endured a worse league campaign than West Brom have this season – one of them being fellow strugglers Sheffield United. No club with 18 points or fewer this deep into the campaign has ever evaded the drop.

By this stage in 2004/05, the Throstles, memorably the first to escape relegation having been bottom at Christmas, had accumulated 21 points. Their 29th match back then was a 1-0 defeat at the Bridge on 15 March thanks to Didier Drogba’s finish after a flowing move. The Premier League leaders rose 11 points clear, while Albion won their next two games.

Back to Seville

Both legs of our Champions League quarter-final clash with Porto will be played at Ramon Sanchez Pijuan ground, a stadium where Olivier Giroud scored the perfect hat-trick-plus-pen against group stage hosts Sevilla in December.

Porto, at home to Santa Clara on Saturday, are our nominal first leg hosts on Wednesday. The second leg in Spain will be the first senior team ‘home’ fixture not played at Stamford Bridge in Chelsea’s history.

Matchday reading matter

A physical copy of the matchday programme with all the usual features and exclusives can be bought online for £3.50 plus postage.

Premier League fixtures

SaturdayChelsea v West Brom 12.30pm (BT Sport)Leeds v Sheffield United 3pm (Amazon Prime Video)Leicester v Man City 5.30pm (Sky Sports)Arsenal v Liverpool 8pm (Sky Sports)

SundaySouthampton v Burnley 12pm (Sky Sports)Newcastle v Tottenham 2.05pm (Sky Sports)Aston Villa v Fulham 4.30pm (Sky Sports)Man Utd v Brighton 7.30pm (BT Sport)

MondayEverton v Crystal Palace 6pm (Sky Sports)Wolves v West Ham 8.15pm (Sky Sports)