Chelsea
will be chasing a fifth successive league victory for the first time since
May 2014 when they host Everton on Saturday.
Since switching to a three-man defence four games ago, Antonio Conte's side
have not conceded a goal - their best run of clean sheets in a season since
a five-game run in 2009.
The switch in system has revitalised Eden Hazard, who has has scored in his
last three games taking his total to five for the season, which is already
more than he managed in 31 games last campaign.
Everton snapped a run of five games without a win with a 2-0 victory over
West Ham United last Sunday. Since taking charge in the summer, Ronald
Koeman has sured up the Everton defence to the extent that they have the
second best defensive record in the league, conceding just eight goals in 10
matches.
Team news
Conte has no fresh injury worries ahead of the match and is likely to play
the same team that saw off Southampton 2-0 on Super Sunday.
Kurt Zouma and Cesc Fabregas remain injury doubts, but have started training
with the first-team.
Everton goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg has recovered from a foot injury but
defender Leighton Baines and midfielder James McCarthy remain unavailable
due to hamstring problems.
Striker Arouna Kone (knee) is also not yet ready for action, and midfielder
Idrissa Gueye will miss out as he serves a suspension, but forward Enner
Valencia can return to the match-day squad after being ineligible last time
out against his parent club West Ham.
It remains to be seen whether Koeman restores captain Phil Jagielka to the
team after dropping him to the bench and replacing him in central defence
with Ramiro Funes Mori for the 2-0 victory over the Hammers.
Opta stats
Chelsea are unbeaten in their last 21 home Premier League games against
Everton since a 0-1 loss in November 1994 (W11 D10). Only against Tottenham
(24) are they on a longer unbeaten Premier League run at Stamford Bridge.
Everton's run of 21 games without a win is their longest away at another
club in the Premier League. Only against Leeds (36) have they had a longer
away run without a win in league history.
John Terry rescued a point for Chelsea in this exact fixture last season,
scoring after 97:53 minutes to make it 3-3 - the latest goal recorded in the
Premier League in 2015-16.
Everton have scored exactly three goals in three of their last four Premier
League meetings with Chelsea, failing to score in the other (W1 D1 L2).
Chelsea have exactly double the number of points (22) that they had after 10
Premier League games last season (11).
Yannick Bolasie has assisted four goals for Romelu Lukaku this season, which
is more than any other player for a single team-mate in the Premier League
this season.
Merson's prediction
Since getting ripped apart at the Emirates Chelsea have been very good,
probably the in-form team in the Premier League. Everton turned their slump
around against West Ham but Chelsea will be too good here.
They might just be a bit light to win the title, if Eden Hazard or Diego
Costa got injured and were out for a while they'd struggle, but they look
like top-four material now. Not a lot of teams could go and do what they did
against Southampton, who are a decent football team but they didn't give
them a look in.
Paul predicts: 2-0 (13/2 with Sky Bet)
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