Coming game is the only trip outside of London this month for the Blues. Aston Villa's last home game brought a handsome victory over Norwich but they have not registered successive home league wins in one campaign since August 2010. The victims back then were West Ham and Everton, either side of a 6-0 thumping at Newcastle and aggregate loss to Europa League foes Rapid Vienna.

Chelsea will hope to extend that broken sequence - the longest ever in the top flight - and even a draw might not suffice in what is shaping up to be a very tight title run-in. We are unbeaten in six games on the road and in three visits to Villa Park, the two most recent ending in victory.

Famously, Frank Lampard hit a brace in last season's 2-1 win (four days before the 2013 Europa League final triumph) to surpass Bobby Tambling's long-standing goalscoring record. The Blues' midfielder has managed 14 goals against the Villans in 25 meetings in all competitions.

There is some unfinished business, though, for Jose Mourinho at what would prove to be the last away ground of his first spell at Chelsea in September 2007: a denied penalty, a 0-2 defeat, Didier Drogba limping away and, crucially, missing the next few matches.

Mourinho must yet to decide whether or not to take Fernando Torres to the Midlands or wait until Tuesday's Champions League game against Galatasaray.

'Maybe I'll take him tomorrow,' he said. 'It depends on today's training and conversations after the session. Yesterday he looked okay.

'The dedication to the recovery was great by him and the physios. He's tried everything to recover, it was only a little thing but when you feel that little thing before a game you don't play. If you feel it during the game maybe the adrenaline takes you through, but when you feel it in the warm-up before the game you don't risk it.

'I have to decide, maybe tomorrow, maybe Tuesday', he said.

By the time this match kicks off the staff and players will know how title rivals Manchester City have fared. Saturday's early match is a glimpse of an FA Cup final that never was, since City suffered a shock exit while Hull progressed.

The Mancunians travel to Humberside anxious to put their season back on track after a dispiriting week. In four days their expectations in two parts of the quadruple Manuel Pellegrini and his players had talked up were trashed, first by Championship side Wigan then Barcelona, presently third in Spain's Primera.

Now they have the luxury of focusing on one competition and chasing down Chelsea's nine-point advantage. The Citizens' fixture congestion also avoided further problems — with no FA Cup semi-final involvement their trip to Anfield on 13 April goes ahead.

Their rearranged visit to Old Trafford is already scheduled for 25 March but the other two outstanding games, at home to Sunderland and Villa, currently await diary slots.

The remarkable torrent of goals from their strikers has also dried up - none has scored since January - and Sergio Aguero appeared to suffer another hamstring injury in midweek.

Mourinho's regular admission that he would rather be in Pellegrini's slip-on loafers than his own is predicated on City having a superior goal difference - 42 compared to the Blues' 34 - having played three fewer matches.

Yet including our 1-0 win at the Etihad the Chilean's chaps have managed only one goal in their last three top-flight outings whereas Mourinho's men stacked six on the goal difference in the London derbies with Fulham and Spurs, almost halving City's advantage.

Perhaps the downside, for Chelsea fans, of Saturday's great derby win over Spurs was that Michael Dawson and Younes Kaboul might be unavailable to have a go at Arsenal in the north London derby this weekend. Kaboul has since had his red card for pushing over Samuel Eto'o in the box rescinded but Dawson's injury definitely keeps him out.

Eto'o hit goal number nine for the season in that rout and his 'Chelsea Pensioner' celebration was up there with Drogba's guitar, Di Matteo and his Roman banquet, and the trombone of Jody Morris for originality. All of stealthy Sammy's strikes to date have come at the Bridge.

Our imminent Champions League visitors, Galatasaray, won 6-1 against Akhisar Belediyespor on Saturday, with two goals for Drogba. The Turkish FA have arranged for Gala to play at Karabükspor this Friday evening to provide ample recovery time ahead of our Round of 16 showdown on Tuesday.

The yellow-reds now lie second, three points behind leaders Fenerbahçe - whose most recent match at Trabzonspor was actually abandoned because of crowd trouble. Fenerbahçe led 1-0 when the game was called off.

Liverpool, who play Man United this weekend, have lost their last six matches at Old Trafford in all competitions.


- Match preview by chelseafc.com