It is a derby Sunday at Stamford Bridge with Chelsea aiming to repeat our win in north London back in September. London's first European champions are eight points clear of Arsenal in the race for Champions League places as we go into this match, and our goal difference is notches superior to the Gunners.

The bad news is that our last-minute request to move this fixture to the Emirates was turned down. (That is a joke by the way.) Jesting aside the disparity between recent results on the road and on the Fulham Road is remarkable. Away from home the five successive victories in all competitions is close to setting a new high.

Yet you have to look back to April 1995 to find a worst sequence over seven league games at the Bridge. Encouragingly, a few weeks later, in the last match of the '94/'95 season, Chelsea inflicted on Arsenal their 11th away defeat of the season to finish one place above them.

Earlier this season we won at the Emirates for the first time since 2009, and in far more convincing fashion than the 2-1 scoreline suggests. Fernando Torres was the key player scoring the first goal of the game and, after Gervinho’s equaliser, winning the free-kick shoot by Mata to found the net on the second.

The Blues would be in second place on an away-only Premier League table behind Manchester United, but seventh were only home matches taken into account. Stoke, Everton, Spurs, West Bromwich Albion and the two Manchester clubs have better records on their own ground.

Over the last five home games Chelsea have the 15th best record (won one, drawn three, lost one), but no one has a superior track record over the past five away matches: won four, lost one.
Were fatigue a major factor in these dropped points it would be reasonable to expect it would have equal effect on home and away performances.

Not only have the Blues played at least five more games in all competitions than any other Premier League team this season, we have scored more goals and also have the best average of goals per game.

Chelsea remained in third place after Wednesday's draw, easing a further point away from fourth-placed Tottenham, who host leaders Manchester United straight after our match on Sunday. It is 12 years since Spurs beat the Red Devils at White Hart Lane in the league.



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