Stamford Bridge hosts the weekend's biggest fixture with both sides back from away games in Europe. The first and second favourites to lift the Barclays Premier League trophy next May meet this weekend in what could be the most important match of the season so far. Both teams have had their difficulties but are improving rapidly on the back of better results.

Stamford Bridge is a fortress again. Chelsea have won 11 and drawn two of our 13 most recent home Premier League games since QPR left Fulham Road with three points on 2 January. We have also scored 14 goals in four games and a minimum of two in nine successive top-flight games at the Bridge.

Manchester City would be 14th rather than fourth if only away games were taken into account but did taste success across town at West Ham last weekend. They have the Premier League's worst record this season for squandering points from a winning position - eight lost in total. Chelsea have won every league game in which we have led and gained four points from losing positions.

City's arrival around this time of year is an echo of the opening to Jose Mourinho's first season in charge, 2004/05. As in the last few months, the Blues began the campaign without extravagance, the most emphatic victory being a 2-0 at Selhurst Park.

After eight games Mourinho's unbeaten side travelled to Manchester in October 2004 in second place, two points behind Arsenal - just as things stand in 2013.

Then comes the part we definitely hope to avoid: in torrential rain on a slick Eastlands pitch Paulo Ferreira tangled with Nicolas Anelka just outside the box and a penalty was awarded. The referee then was same as this Sunday: Howard Webb. Anelka scored from the spot and it was the only goal of the game.

Thus jolted, but with Arjen Robben finally ready to make his debut, Chelsea responded with a formidable run up to Christmas including six four-goal hauls that set the pace for the remainder of the season. A game of this stature is never quite as important as the aftermath and response.

Back in 2004 City were steered by that quintessential British football man Kevin Keegan. The Chilean coach Manuel Pellegrini is in his debut season. He is new to English football culture and conditions - the physical demands on players, lack of a winter break, spirit of smaller clubs.

So far he has managed some excellent results - notably the 3-1 win at Upton Park last weekend - and some surprisingly poor ones. His stellar side have yet fully to shake off the impression that they raise their game only when they fancy it. One thing is certain: any game against the Blues falls into that category.

Mourinho's managerial statistics since the start of the season are now 64 per cent wins, 22 per cent draws and 14 per cent losses, closing in on the 67 per cent, 22 per cent and 11 per cent he managed here between 2004 and 2007. Pellegrini's record at City is 49 per cent wins, 25 per cent draws, 26 per cent losses.

This will be the new City manager's sixth league joust across the technical area with the Portuguese. When they met in the Primera between 2011 and 2013 Real trumped Malaga in three of the five games, with one drawn.

Most notable among those results were emphatic 7-0, 4-0 and 6-2 beatings. The latter, as recent as May 2013, included a penalty fluffed by Ronaldo and two red cards for Malaga. If Pellegrini needs to check the details he might confer with his central defender Martín Demichelis, who was on the receiving end in all three matches.

The encouraging 3-0 victory over Schalke -with a superb Torres’ double- on Tuesday put the Blues top of Group E and with a big advantage in the head-to-head results that come into play in the event of a points tie.

Chelsea's clean sheet was the first by Champions League visitors to Gelsenkirchen for 11 matches. At the other end, Fernando Torres has now scored a hugely impressive nine goals in his last nine UEFA matches. Surprisingly, Eden Hazard's was his first in Europe's elite competition.


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