The resumption offers clubs a fresh start: injuries have had time to repair, summer signings can be more in the zone, coaching ideas better embedded. That could be especially timely for a Blues side looking for a first win in four. The Cherries, 14th in the table before the November pause, returned to the fray a week ago, losing 1-0 at Newcastle in the Carabao Cup. 

• Potter's pre-match thoughts

• Chelsea vs Bournemouth: Head-to-head record, stats, form, fixtures

• Head coach plans out Reece's return

Many teams will have a different momentum from before the World Cup finals. Usually there is a long summer for participants to recover but not so this year. The 14 Chelsea players involved will have had a matter of days to return to their physical and mental peak, while for those who stayed behind, a return to real action on Tuesday cannot surely come soon enough.

Our recent record at the Bridge is decent: the Londoners have lost just three of the past 22 Premier League games on home soil, winning 10. Room for improvement, though, lies in the nine draws accumulated in that period.

Bournemouth, whose coach Gary O’Neil replaced Scott Parker just a week before Graham Potter succeeded Thomas Tuchel, are unbeaten in three against the Blues. The interruption in momentum came at a bad time for them, as they had just scored eight goals in three league games, as many as in their previous 11 combined. The Cherries have won once away all season.

Potter will hope for a touch of tinsel similar to Boxing Day 2016 when Antonio Conte’s league leaders swept Bournemouth aside by three goals to nil.

Key stat

Chelsea were averaging 1.83 points per league game at Stamford Bridge before the World Cup, while Bournemouth managed 0.71 points per match on the road.

Chelsea team news

Warm-weather training and friendlies are behind us as the real business of top-flight football returns. Less intense than the pre-season that follows the much longer summer break, the simpler routine will have benefitted players and allowed new coaching staff to appraise the wider squad ahead of the January transfer window.

A youthful line-up with 12 Cobham graduates in the fold lost narrowly to Unai Emery’s near full-strength Aston Villa on 11 December. Academy players Lewis Hall, a midfielder who can play wing-back or in defence, and lively winger Omari Hutchinson both looked at home against that level of opposition.

Sadly, Wes Fofana and Armando Broja were injured in the mini-pre-season, the latter more seriously.

Mateo Kovacic, Hakim Ziyech, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Ben Chilwell will not make the squad for the reopener, and N’Golo Kante remains sidelined, but the restoration of Carney Chukwuemeka and Reece James would be major boosts for Potter. Thiago Silva, imperious for Brazil, could make his 100th appearance in royal blue.

Might we see a different tactical approach from Graham Potter, who has early success in his Chelsea spell with four at the back, but switched largely to 3-4-2-1 once James was unavailable?

The Londoners have not found the net in three of our last five games against Bournemouth, but have yet to concede in the first half at Stamford Bridge this season, and are outscoring opponents at home in every 15-minute period except 61-75 minutes.

More eager to face Bournemouth than most will be Raheem Sterling, who has netted nine times in nine league meetings, including his first top-flight hat-trick in October 2015.

Combined goals and assists all competitions 2022/23

Scouting the opposition: Bournemouth

Like Graham Potter, newly appointed manager Gary O’Neil took the Bournemouth squad to the Middle East for double-session training and bonding in the warmth of the United Arab Emirates.

O’Neil has picked up 13 points from 11 league matches in his first role as head coach and lost in the Carabao Cup against long-time Cherries boss Eddie Howe’s new club Newcastle on Tuesday, his first game since his permanent appointment.

Bournemouth had a good defensive record at Stamford Bridge before relegation, but have proved porous on their return this season. They have conceded the most goals in the Premier League to date (32), and more from headers (eight), corners (nine), penalties (five) and set-pieces (10) than any rival club.

The shut-down allowed the Dorset club to rehabilitate injured first-teamers such as goalkeeper Neto and defender Lloyd Kelly. However a virus affected ‘eight to 10 players’ ahead of last week’s trip to St James’ Park, with Kelly, Ryan Fredericks, Jefferson Lerma and Marcus Tavernier all struck by it. Each of onetime Boro winger Tavernier’s two goals and four assists came in three games just before the break.

Former Blues striker Dominic Solanke is likely to be paired upfront again with Wales’s World Cup standout Kieffer Moore. Moore tends to drift to the left flank, where Jaidon Anthony, Jordan Zemura and Philip Billing provide much of the Cherries’ counter-attacking impetus.

Chelsea will hope to pin compact, hard-working Bournemouth back as successfully as the Magpies did, but deliver with more precision from the wings against the visitors’ deep, narrow defensive set-up.

Solidarity against discrimination

Before the start of the season Premier League players agreed to take the knee before a few selected games rather than every match. Among the fixtures selected for this show of solidarity against all forms of racism will be all those played between 26 and 28 December, including Chelsea versus Bournemouth. Pitch-side screens will reinforce the ‘No Room For Racism’ message to help make stadiums a more diverse and welcoming environment for all.

As has been the case at all Premier League matches this week, there will be a moment of applause before kick-off in tribute to George Cohen MBE, one of England’s 1966 World Cup winners, who sadly passed away on 23 December. Players and match officials will wear black armbands.

• By club historian Rick Glanvill and club statistician Paul Dutton