The Blues head into this weekend's Premier League fixtures fourth in the table and take on the Tractor Boys fresh off a comprehensive 3-0 victory over Legia Warsaw in the Conference League on Thursday evening.

Enzo Maresca's side have beaten the other four teams currently occupying the Premier League's bottom five – West Ham United, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Leicester City and Southampton – home and away during this campaign, but we were beaten 2-0 by Ipswich at Portman Road just after Christmas.

However, only the Foxes and Saints have a worse record on the road this term than the Tractor Boys – and no promoted club has done a league double over the west Londoners in the top flight since Charlton Athletic in 2000/01.

The Blues will be aiming to strengthen our hold on one of the five Champions League qualification slots now confirmed to be on offer for Premier League teams, and the visitors have just one away clean sheet to their name in 2024/25.

We are the Premier League’s most in-form home team, with four straight wins recorded in which we have conceded just one goal. We are also unbeaten in nine against promoted teams at the Bridge.

Chelsea team news

Wesley Fofana is unavailable for selection after undergoing hamstring surgery last weekend, while Maresca confirmed after our victory over Legia that the substitutions of Tosin Adarabioyo and Cole Palmer at half time were pre-planned.

‘We planned the game to try to have our best players for this game, and to give a chance to rest players and recover energy,’ explained Maresca after the 3-0 win in the Polish capital.

Nicolas Jackson was an unused substitute in Warsaw, with our head coach keen to manage the Senegal international's fitness after recently recovering from injury.

‘We need to manage him because you can see his importance to us,’ said Maresca. ‘It was harder playing games without him because he is that kind of striker who is always a threat to the opposition’s defensive line, and he is also very aggressive off the ball.

'With Nico, I think we are a better team, so we are going to try to manage him until the end.’

This is Premier League matchweek 32. After our 33rd, which takes place at Fulham, the threat of a two-game suspension for ten cautions is wiped. Players would then only serve a three-game ban for reaching 15 yellow cards.

Moises Caicedo is currently most at risk within the Chelsea squad, as he has accrued nine yellows.

The history

Ipswich are without a win in their last eight league visits to Stamford Bridge, a run that stretches back to 1979, and this is their first trip to our home since a 2-1 victory for the Blues in November 2001.

We have welcomed the Tractor Boys twice in the FA Cup since, and both occasions ended in Chelsea wins. There was a 3-1 triumph in January 2009 and a resounding 7-0 success two years later. That remains our biggest winning margin over Ipswich in the modern era.

Our biggest Premier League victory (4-1) was recorded during the 2000/01 season. Marcus Stewart opened the scoring, but Gus Poyet's two goals and another from Dennis Wise turned things around for Claudio Ranieri’s side. John McGreal then saw red, and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink converted the penalty.

In January 1978, on Ken Shellito’s watch, an even more eventful game took place at the Bridge. Town twice led in the contest but Kenny Swain’s brace and late goals for Steve Finnieston, Steve Wicks and Tommy Langley handed the young Blues a 5-3 win.

In September 1970, the Tractor Boys were beaten 2-1 by Alan Hudson’s infamous ‘goal that never was’ – a shot that rebounded off the stanchion behind the net for Chelsea’s second. ‘Hudson knew he had missed it,’ groaned keeper David Best, ‘30,000 spectators knew it wasn’t a goal, but the referee would not change his mind.’

The following season, Sexton’s men hosted Town at Christmas. A goalkeeping crisis meant outfield utility man David Webb started in goal; he knelt and prayed in front of the Shed End before kick-off and then kept a clean sheet in a 2-0 win.

Know this...

Chelsea have not lost at home to Ipswich since May 1979, the last season Town completed a league double over the Blues.

Our league win percentage of 68.42 when playing Ipswich at the Bridge is our second-highest against current top-flight clubs behind Brighton & Hove Albion (70 per cent).

Cole Palmer (73) has set up the second-most goal chances in this season’s Premier League, and Enzo Fernandez (64) the fourth.

Before last weekend, when Southampton were relegated with eight matches still to play, Ipswich were joint-sufferers of the Premier League’s earliest ever demotion, with six to go in 1995.

Ipswich have dropped 25 points from winning positions this season and 10 to goals conceded after the 75th minute.

Chelsea have kept a clean sheet in four of our past five Premier League games. Robert Sanchez has, meanwhile, saved 77.8 per cent of shots on target, the highest rate of any Premier League goalkeeper this season.

SAOT begins

Semi-automated offside technology (SAOT), already applied in the FA Cup, will be used in the Premier League from this weekend. The limb-tracking technology is designed to speed up the offside decision-making process by VAR.

Chelsea were the first English side to trial SAOT during the FIFA Club World Cup in Abu Dhabi in 2022, a competition we won.