Chelsea’s penultimate away trip of the Premier League campaign takes us to Everton in the Walton area of Liverpool for the 83rd time in the top flight. While the Blues are looking to lock in a Champions League place, the 18th-placed Toffees are scrapping to avoid banishment from England’s elite.

Frank Lampard has said he will feel ‘no emotion’ facing the club he graced for 13 seasons as a player and more as our manager, and a fanbase that is likely to be backing Chelsea to the hilt for the FA Cup final against their big rivals Liverpool on 14 May has promised a ‘bearpit’ reception at Goodison Park on Sunday.

On Saturday at 3pm the hosts will be casting anxious eyes towards Watford, where a win for Burnley, in 17th, would leave Everton five points from safety.

Following Thursday’s draw at Old Trafford, Chelsea are unbeaten in 14 matches away from Stamford Bridge (comprising 11 wins and three draws). The champions of Europe have racked up more Sunday matches without losing – six wins and three draws – than any rival this season. In contrast, the Toffees’ record is one draw and eight defeats.

Chelsea team news

The world champions have a rare clear midweek ahead but first comes this trip to an unhappy hunting ground: Chelsea have lost our past three league outings at Goodison Park. Not since the title-winning 2016/17 season have the youthful Blues finished a campaign consistently strongly, and this corner of Liverpool is a good place to begin the process of ditching a bad habit.

The performances of the night in the draw at Old Trafford belonged to the ranging, imperious Reece James and sprightly Mason Mount, who dominated the right flank and created a significant number of chances.

It was James’s clipped cross, shrewdly flicked on to Marcos Alonso by Kai Havertz, that brought a well-deserved lead but, not for the first time, the opponents were allowed to strike back within minutes through lax defending. Thomas Tuchel will demand a decisive reaction from his forwards after other opportunities to put the game beyond Manchester United went begging.

In truth, the whole game was reminiscent of December’s 1-1 draw with Everton at the Bridge, in which Jordan Pickford made nine saves, and Mount’s opener from James’s assist was swiftly nullified by Jarrad Branthwaite’s unchallenged tap-in from a needless free-kick. The last Englishman to score home and away against the Merseysiders for Chelsea was Frank Lampard in 2005/06.

That said, the Blues have kept a clean sheet in seven of the past 11 league clashes with Sunday’s hosts, and 23 overall – only against Tottenham (27) and Newcastle (26) have we recorded more. The Blues have also netted 293 times against the Toffees across all competitions, more than any other opponent.

However, Mateo Kovacic is the only current Blues player to have scored a goal at Goodison and he is likely to remain sidelined (having just returned to training) along with Ben Chilwell and Callum Hudson-Odoi.

A testing three-day turnaround adds to the challenge for the Londoners, but Trevoh Chalobah, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Christian Pulisic, Hakim Ziyech and Andreas Christensen could be drafted in for freshness. Whoever is selected must be ready to leave everything on the pitch in what is likely to be very hostile territory.

Frank’s formula

Frank Lampard had two significant returners to training this week in centre-back Yerry Mina and lead striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin, though Tom Davies, Ben Godfrey, Andre Gomes, Andros Townsend and Donny van de Beek remain unavailable.

At Anfield recently the former Chelsea coach set his team up attritionally, with two deep and narrow blocks of four in defence, allowing possession in wide areas but protecting the 18-yard box.

Liverpool eventually unlocked the tiring rearguard by playing quicker and more directly to the edge of the box, though lively Anthony Gordon was unfortunate not to be awarded at least one penalty in response.

In possession the Toffees looked to feed an energetic front three of Demarai Gray, Richarlison and Gordon, particularly targeting Trent Alexander-Arnold with Gordon’s pace. Calvert-Lewin’s availability could see Gray drop out and Richarlison asked to run the right flank.

Lampard is likely to exploit Everton’s easier workload against Chelsea, in action on Thursday, by taking an even more direct attacking approach than he did across Stanley Park. The tough-tackling midfield deployed against the Reds included Allan and Abdoulaye Doucoure. Fabian Delph could make a return in that area.

Mayday merriment

Chelsea have won each of our four Premier League games played on 1 May, including the 3-1 licking of the Toffees in 1999, sealed by a sumptuous Gianfranco Zola free-kick.

In fact, the Blues have dished out more ‘pinch punch’ than any team since 1992/93, winning 30 of our 50 league matches (60 per cent) staged on the opening day of any month.

Former helmsmen

Lampard will become the 10th former Chelsea coach to face the Blues in the Premier League. Claudio Ranieri at Leicester in December 2015 is the only one of the previous nine to win at the first attempt.

Lamps is the third to play against us from an Everton dugout, matching Tottenham’s tally of former Blues coaches. Carlo Ancelotti is the only past coach to have beaten the Londoners in the last 14 such league meetings: with the Toffees in December 2020, against Lampard’s Chelsea.

Park life

As Blur well knew, there’s something about Chelsea and parks. Goodison Park has witnessed the third-most Blues wins in the Premier League (10), while the top-two grounds are Crystal Palace’s Selhurst Park (14) and Villa Park (12), home of Aston Villa.

The race for places

Although Thursday’s result was disappointing, it ended any hope Manchester United had of finishing above Chelsea, leaving Arsenal and Tottenham as rivals.

All outcomes of the north London derby in 10 days’ time leave either challenger with a maximum of 72 points to play for, so the European champions (on 66, and with an unassailable-looking goal difference) realistically require two wins from the last five matches to confirm Champions League football next season.

Remaining league fixtures:

We have history

Everton head coach Lampard will be all too aware that Goodison Park has often been a graveyard for Chelsea ambitions over the past 13 years, with eight sometimes form-defying defeats.

The Blues’ best result in that time came in a see-saw match of rather better attacking than defending in August 2014. The Londoners were 2-0 ahead inside the opening three minutes through Diego Costa and Branislav Ivanovic, then pegged back momentarily before a Seamus Coleman own goal restored the cushion.

That was the first of six goals over 24 second-half minutes to complete a 6-3 victory for the visitors.

Toffees – our part in their survival

Everton have not dropped out of the top flight since 1950/51 but there have been a few very near misses, and they had Chelsea to thank for their survival.

On the closing day of the 1993/94 season, Sheffield United visited the Bridge knowing a result might keep them up at the Toffees’ expense. With 15 minutes to go, the Blades were leading Glenn Hoddle’s FA Cup finalists 2-1 and only needed a draw for safety as the Merseysiders were tied 2-2 with Wimbledon at Goodison.

Even when Mark Stein banged in an equaliser, the Yorkshiremen were safe (though ex-Blue Graham Stuart had scored late for Everton), but their bench mistakenly thought otherwise and implored them to attack. Instead, Steino drilled in a last-ditch winner that put the steel city side to the sword and saved Everton’s skins.

Four years later, again in the final match at the Bridge (and three days before the Cup Winners’ Cup final), some supporters who preferred Everton to go down jokingly chanted ‘let them score’ – meaning visitors Bolton.

It was 0-0 until 76 minutes, when Gianluca Vialli netted before another late goal scored by Jody Morris made it 2-0. Meanwhile, the Toffees suffered a very late leveller at home to Coventry but clung on to seal the Trotters’ fate on goal difference.

Infamously, 71 years ago when Everton last suffered the drop, Chelsea avoided joining them by a 0.044 advantage on goal average.

Premier League fixtures

SaturdayNewcastle vs Liverpool 12.30pm (BT Sport)Aston Villa vs Norwich 3pmSouthampton vs Crystal Palace 3pmWatford vs Burnley 3pmWolves vs Brighton 3pmLeeds vs Man City 5.30pm (Sky Sports)

SundayEverton vs Chelsea 2pm (Sky Sports)Tottenham vs Leicester 2pmWest Ham vs Arsenal 4.30pm (Sky Sports)

MondayMan Utd vs Brentford 8pm (Sky Sports)