It's back to Premier League duty for Chelsea this afternoon, as the Blues made the trip to the Black Country to take on bottom-of-the-table Wolverhampton Wanderers.

A rare but traditional Saturday 3pm kick-off awaits the Blues. Our previous two matches in that timeslot, against Everton and Brentford at Stamford Bridge, both ended in 2-0 victories.

This fixture is the first of three successive top-flight outings against sides battling to survive. We host old rivals Leeds United at Stamford Bridge next Tuesday before welcoming Burnley on Saturday 21 February.

Wolves endured the longest winless start to a Premier League campaign in history, but have not always earned the results their performances warranted.

Rob Edwards has also had a clear week to prepare his side for the clash at Molineux, while the Blues suffered the disappointment of exiting the Carabao Cup at the semi-final stage on Tuesday.

The reverse fixture between these sides in November ended in a 3-0 victory for Chelsea, with Malo Gusto scoring his first Blues goal and Joao Pedro and Pedro Neto also on target.

We are aiming to secure our fourth successive win over Wolves and our fourth victory on the bounce in the Premier League under Liam Rosenior.

Chelsea team news

Rosenior confirmed at his pre-match press conference on Thursday that Cole Palmer and Estevao Willian are ready to play 90 minutes, if needed, for the Blues.

Decisions were set to be made yesterday (Friday) over the fitness of Reece James and Pedro Neto after both missed our Carabao Cup semi-final second leg against Arsenal.

Levi Colwill is a long-term absentee and continues to recover from a knee injury, while midfielders Dario Essugo and Romeo Lavia remain sidelined.

There was also disappointing news on Jamie Gittens, who was withdrawn from our victory over West Ham United last weekend with a hamstring injury.

'Jamie is looking a little bit more long-term. It's a real shame for him; he's got a tear in his hamstring.

'That’s a real shame for him as, obviously, I’ve not worked with him for too long, but I know about his career and what an outstanding player he is. So that’s going to be a big miss for us.’

The history

Throughout our history, fixtures between Chelsea and Wolves have often carried extra significance, including our first meetings during the 1906/07 season.

Our maiden outing against Wanderers in December 1906 saw the Blues pocket vital points, which built confidence in recently-installed Pensioners manager William Lewis’s stewardship.

The reverse fixture at Stamford Bridge the following April saw Chelsea romp to a 4-0 win that clinched our rapid promotion to Division One. A bumper 30,000 crowd wildly celebrated the club’s elevation just two seasons after its foundation.

Almost 50 years later, Chelsea and Wolves were vying for the title during the 1954/55 season. A trip to the Black Country, again in December, proved an important milestone on Chelsea’s charge to championship success.

A back-and-forth game was poised at 2-2 entering the final quarter-hour, but the hosts then edged ahead through a hotly-disputed penalty. Ted Drake’s men rallied, though, and Les Stubbs quickly levelled before Roy Bentley struck the winner to seal a 4-3 win.

The return game at Stamford Bridge, a 1-0 win for the champions elect, ended Wolves' remaining title hopes.

In May 1977, the Old Gold were already certain of a return to the top-flight from Division Two, but Eddie McCreadie’s Blues needed to avoid defeat to join them.

Though officially banned, thousands of Chelsea fans showed themselves in the stands when Tommy Langley opened the scoring. Wolves levelled for a 1-1 draw, but the young Blues had done their job.

Match-ups at Molineux occasionally produced hefty defeats for the Blues (8-1, 7-1, 6-1), but our first trip of the Premier League era on 20 September 2003 finished 5-0 to Chelsea, with Hernan Crespo opening his account with two goals.

Last season, the Blues turned the screw once more. The game was level at 2-2 in the second half, before Cole Palmer, who had scored earlier in the afternoon, took control, teeing up Noni Madueke on three occasions as the winger struck a hat-trick.

Days before our 3-0 home league win against Wolves this season, we were also victorious 4-3 at Molineux in the EFL Cup.

Know this…

The Blues have won the previous four meetings with Wolves in all competitions by an aggregate score of 16-6.

For the first time in our history, a player has scored in the opening three Premier League matches of a new head coach's tenure (Joao Pedro against Brentford, Crystal Palace and West Ham United).

Chelsea attempted 721 passes during last weekend’s win against West Ham, the team’s highest tally in a Premier League game this season.

Our previous away outing at Crystal Palace, which ended in a 3-1 win for the Blues, halted a run of five matches on the road without victory.

Wolves have scored just four goals in their previous seven Premier League matches at Molineux, and have not scored in the second half of a top-flight game all season.

Wanderers’ record of eight points after 24 matches is the second joint-worst in Premier League history behind Portsmouth’s six at the same stage in 2009/10.

Chelsea won the first encounters with Wolves in Division 2 (2-1 at Molineux in 1906), the FA Cup (2-0 at Molineux in 1911), Division 1 (2-1 at Molineux in 1932), the Premier League (5-0 at Molineux in 2003), and the League Cup (6-0 at Stamford Bridge in 2012).

On this day in 1959, 16-year-olds Barry Bridges and Bobby Tambling made goalscoring debuts for Ted Drake’s Chelsea in a 3-2 win against West Ham.