Having made his first appearance for the Blues in the Carabao Cup against Tottenham, Mendy keeps his place in goal and ahead of him there is just one change to the defence that faced Spurs, with Thiago Silva replacing Fikayo Tomori alongside Kurt Zouma in the middle.

Cesar Azpilicueta captains the Blues from right-back and Chilwell will make his first Premier League appearance for Chelsea, having previously featured in both our League Cup ties.

N’Golo Kante will line-up with Jorginho in midfield, the Frenchman coming in for Mateo Kovacic as one of four changes Frank Lampard has made from the midweek game with Tottenham.

Callum Hudson-Odoi and Timo Werner look likely to continue on the wings, with Tammy Abraham leading the line up front, supported by Kai Havertz behind him. Pulisic returns from injury to be named among the substitutes for the first time this season.

Crystal Palace are unchanged from the side which lost 2-1 to Everton in their previous match last weekend.

Chelsea: Mendy; Azpilicueta (c), Zouma, Thiago Silva, Chilwell; Kante, Jorginho; Hudson-Odoi, Havertz, Werner; Abraham

Subs: Kepa, Tomori, James, Kovacic, Mount, Pulisic, Giroud

Crystal Palace: Guaita; Ward, Kouyate, Sakho, Mitchell; Townsend, McArthur, McCarthy, Eze; Zaha, Ayew

Subs: Hennessey, Dann, Kelly, Riedewald, Milivojevic, Meyer, Benteke

The referee is Michael Oliver

Stats recap

Chelsea are seeking a sixth consecutive league victory against Crystal Palace for the first time. Palace’s last win against Chelsea was in October 2017 at Selhurst Park.

None of the last 18 Premier League meetings between the clubs have finished level, with the Blues winning 14 to Palace’s four.

Chelsea stats

Frank Lampard’s side have won seven of our past eight games in all competitions at Stamford Bridge, six with a clean sheet. Liverpool against a 10-man Blues two weeks ago was our only defeat in that run.

The last London club to leave Stamford Bridge with all three points was West Ham in November last year.

Tammy Abraham and Christian Pulisic scored in both our Premier League encounters with Crystal Palace last season.

Ben Chilwell will make his 100th career appearance in the Premier League.