Our third and final away game in January takes us to Humberside for the first time in four years. A win in this early kick-off against Hull City would place the Blues top of the table, if only for a few hours. As good as the festive season was for Chelsea, it is an indication of how tight this Barclays Premier League campaign could be that the Blues' return of three victories and a draw, with a goal difference of plus four, was the fourth best over that period.

Manchester City, Arsenal and Tottenham all performed marginally better, while even 'crisis club' Manchester United managed three wins and a net addition of three to their goal difference (one a very narrow win at Hull on Boxing Day). There can be no resting on any laurels this weekend, which sees the opening day fixtures reversed. Chelsea's next two league games are at home: to Man United and West Ham.

If selected Torres will make against Hull his 200th appearance in Premier League. The number nine would reach the landmark against a side previously hard-punished by the Spaniard with a stunning hat-trick for Liverpool on September 2009. On that day the Reds won Tigers by 6-1, scoring Torres the three first goals for the Anfield Club.

Also there's something about fours at the moment. At Derby in the FA Cup last weekend John Mikel Obi celebrated becoming only the fourth overseas player to make his 300th appearance at Chelsea by scoring his fourth goal for the club.

All his strikes have come during Jose Mourinho's two spells at Stamford Bridge. If the Special One can turn Mikel into a prolific goalscorer it could only be a matter of time before he resolves America's polar vortex crisis, if required.

Chelsea's Nigeria midfielder accidentally became skipper when Michael Essien left the action at the iPro Stadium - Mourinho confessed the vacant armband was supposed to go to seven-time FA Cup winner Ashley Cole.

Mikel was runner-up to CAF African Footballer of the Year 2013 Yaya Toure on Thursday. It is a title his teammateSamuel Eto'o has won a record four times, most recently 2010; Didier Drogba won it in 2006 and 2009.

The same day Europa League victors Chelsea were announced as the world's third best team of 2013 by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS). Top rated according to their data were Champions League winners Bayern Munich, followed by Real Madrid, the club Mourinho left in June 2013 to rejoin the Blues. After Chelsea the IFFHS's top five was completed by Spanish duo Atletico Madrid and Barcelona.

Talented midfielder Lewis Baker was handed a seven-minute debut in that FA Cup win. He is a player Jose has watched many times and likes the look of. The breakthrough is great for Chelsea's Academy and is another indication of the value of the under-fire competition.

Also last Sunday Mark Schwarzer achieved his fourth clean sheet in five appearances, producing a highly impressive 80 per cent rate. He has now recorded more shutouts than the likes of Steve Sherwood (three in 17 appearances), Mark Bosnich (two in seven), Bob Iles (one in 14), Tommy Hughes (one in 11), Ross Turnbull (one in 16), Perry Digweed (one in three) and David Webb (one in one) - the only Chelsea goalie with a 100 per cent blank record.

More importantly the 2-0 win was Chelsea's fourth clean sheet in the five games since the Capital One Cup defeat at Sunderland which prompted much debate and reappraisal.

Saturday lunchtime will be another test of the renewed resilience: Hull only lost to Man United by a James Chester own goal and surprisingly whacked six past our west London neighbours Fulham two days later on 28 December. The half-dozen goals came in the second half, a rare feat that Chelsea managed against Wigan when sealing the league title on 9 May 2010 (with two goals in the first half we won 8-0).

The Humberside club currently boast the sixth best home record in the league this season and no side has conceded fewer than their six goals. However the only serious scalp they have claimed there is that of Liverpool; Man City, Arsenal, Everton and Tottenham visit the KC Stadium over the second half of the season. Their away record is the second worst in the top flight.

The transfer window opened last week but is only slightly ajar for Chelsea, as the manager has said. Hull City have denied rekindling their flirtation with Shane Long, the player they attempted to lure from Sunderland in the summer.

Our host conurbation this weekend was named UK City of Culture for 2017 a few weeks ago. No doubt many southern-based readers will already be familiar with Kingston-upon-Hull's existing attractions, such as the river horse-wash at Victoria Pier, the world's smallest window at the George Hotel, and replicas (designed from photographs) of Tutankhamun's tomb goods that outraged Howard Carter.

Furthermore, The Land Of Green Ginger is not a barrel-scraping Tin Tin adventure, as the uninitiated might assume, but one of Hull's more exotically named streets.

So is that, like the old Housemartins album title, 'London 0 Hull 4'? Hardly - though the Ferens Art Gallery does have a few David Hockneys and Helen Chadwicks on its walls, and the Maritime and Wilberforce museums are excellent.


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