Part one of a home-match trilogy went well enough on Wednesday, part two is a traditional derby game for Easter. The Chelsea number ‘9’ Fernando Torres has an excellent record against Saturday’s opponents. The striker has scored five goals in five appearances for Liverpool including a treble. Torres grabbed his hattrick against the Hammers in a Premier League match in March 2008. The feat was his second treble in ten days as Torres became the first player in 60 years to score back-to-back hattricks at Anfield. The Spaniard also hit two in the Red’s 3-0 win at the Boleyn Ground in the last season’s fixture.
 
'Take him unaware by surprise attacks where he is unprepared,' is one of the recommendations in Sun Tzu's 'Art Of War', the ancient military handbook. 'Hit him suddenly with shock troops.' Carlo Ancelotti will be pleased that his revitalised team did just that on Wednesday against Birmingham, whose manager, Alec McLeish, later admitted: 'Chelsea were in a different gear tonight.'

Quick tempo passing and direct play have not been regular features of the champions' defence of the Barclays Premier League. Yet recent performances have brought back the kind of explosive starts that were an early-season treat.

One of those was at the home of this weekend's opponents, West Ham United. Michael Essien's header after two minutes, and Salomon Kalou 15 minutes later put the west Londoners in complete control, inflicting on the hosts their worst ever start to a campaign.

Being quick out of the blocks against Brum means that Chelsea are back in the top two for the first time since November, with 19 points gathered from last 21 available. The champions are the Premier League's in-form team, and the sequence has made the impossible merely improbable.

Should Chelsea win all remaining games (including Old Trafford) with a better goal difference than Arsenal and Manchester United, it would still require the Mancunians to drop a further three points for the Blues to retain the title.

As England's sole remaining representatives in the Champions League Sir Alex Ferguson's side have to face a dangerous Schalke team either side of playing Arsenal at the Emirates.

That cannot help the aching limbs among their regular starters, who may need resting, and who knows in which competition the wily Scots' priorities lie in that respect.

Chelsea may have accrued the fewest points at this stage of the campaign since Roman Abramovich took over, but the certainty is that this year's league winners will triumph with the lowest total over that same period.

Everton have not won at Old Trafford since August 1992, but impressed in drawing 3-3 in the reverse fixture earlier this season. Bolton away used to be Arsenal's kryptonite, but the north Londoners have won there relatively easily in the last three seasons.