Nineteen days after our last league fixture, Chelsea return to the north-west again. Saturday evening's return to club action pits Jose Mourinho against Roberto Martínez, another manager (like Steve Bruce and David Moyes already this season) who is no novice to the Premier League but will face the Blues for the first time with his current club.

Against Chelsea to date, Martínez has one win and one draw stacked up against six defeats, including the famous 8-0 of 2010, when tactical novelty was undone by a red card. Those games were with Wigan, where he delivered the club's first major silverware in the FA Cup last season on a very tight budget. Despite his reputation for expansive football, though, the Spanish manager's league record is not so impressive.

At Swansea between 2007 and 2009 he earned promotion from League One and ended eighth in the Championship. From 2009 he steered Wigan to 16th in successive top-flight campaigns, then 15th and finally 18th - and relegated.

Fernando Torres will fight against Toffees to find his first League goal of the season, after his outstanding performance on the UEFA Super Cup final decided on the penalty shoot-out for European Champions FC Bayern. Our number nine scored a superb strike eight minutes from kick-off, after a perfect counter-attack started by himself and quickly built with Hazard and Schürrle.

If selected, at Goodison Park Torres will try to emulate his last goal of the 2012/13 season, scoring to Everton at The Bridge the winner (2-1) 13 minutes from the final whistle. That was his 23th goal for Torres, his second best record since he moved to the Premiership. Fernando Torres has scored seven times to Everton, two strikes made in Goodison Park. His best record at this ground took place on September 2008 with a stunning double, scoring the two only goals of the Merseyside Derby for Liverpool FC.

Nine-times English champions Everton, who presently lie 15th and could slip as low as 18th before the 5.30pm kick-off, have expectations above those of the lowly Latics but with a similarly tight purse-string. Since switching to Merseyside, Martinez has posted three successive draws in the league, including two 0-0s. Visitors Chelsea, who recently held Man United to the same scoreline at Old Trafford, were the only team from the capital with the recipe to beat Moyes's Toffees last season.

Having counted the players out and counted them back in again, we can set the stress of international games and the inevitable injuries to one side until mid-October, returning to the relative bliss of domestic football.

One traveller in particular deserves congratulations. New England caps centurion Frank Lampard joins 10 other current or former Chelsea players to have reached that international milestone.


- 100 CAREER INTERNATIONAL CAPS

1 Geremi Cameroon 118
2 Marcel Desailly France 116
3 Samuel Eto'o Cameroon 113
4 Andriy Shevchenko Ukraine 111
5 Mark Schwarzer Australia 109
6 Fernando Torres Spain 106
7 Ashley Cole England 105
8 Didier Deschamps France 103
9 Petr Cech Czech Republic 103
10 Damien Duff Republic of Ireland 100
11 Frank Lampard England 100


It is interesting to note that just two of the XI have represented England, though that represents a quarter of the country's total of eight. The Chelsea centurions would make a pretty tasty team - providing Mark Schwarzer is happy to fill in at centre-back.

Lampard, Chelsea's record goalscorer, was unable to add to his international tally against Ukraine but Everton are one of the sides against whom he hits the net with regularity. He managed a vital brace in the 2-1 win at Goodison last Christmas.

This weekend and Wednesday's Champions League opener against Basel may offer Chelsea supporters first sight of transfer deadline arrivals Willian and Samuel Eto'o. First sight in the right shirt, that is: both have played against the Blues.

Willian scored twice for Shakhtar in a 3-2 Chelsea home win; his new teammate Eto'o (pronounced 'Ay-toh') netted three times in eight matches with Inter and Barça, four of them at the Bridge. (To sugar that pill, the Cameroonian also hit three in two against Spurs.)

Equally, if not more important, the international break gave back-to-back Player of the Year Juan Mata the chance to approach full fitness after niggling injuries. He joined the likes of John Terry, Cesar Azpilicueta, Fernando Torres and Demba Ba, who remained behind to work with Mourinho ahead of this weekend's match.

Brazil's fixtures enabled David Luiz to prove his fitness since Chelsea's last domestic action. Disappointingly, Marouane Fellaini's departure has prevented the chance of an Afro hair-off with our Brazilian central defender.

Chelsea are unbeaten in the Barclays Premier League in 11 games, winning 27 points from the last 33. We have won three and drawn two of our last five away top-flight league games.

Everton have not lost at home in the Premier League in 2013. Since our win there last December, the Toffees have taken 24 out of a possible 30 points at Goodison Park.

Everton used 23 players in the Premier League last season - fewer than any other club.

Roberto Martinez has won one of his last 11 games as a manager in the Premier League with Wigan and Everton.

Everton gained 22 points from losing positions last season, the third best record in the top flight.



- Match preview by chelseafc.com (Rick Glanvill and Paul Dutton)