After three successive away matches, the home comforts of Stamford Bridge await Enzo Maresca and his players in this evening's Premier League clash against Southampton.

The game begins a run of nine successive league games in the capital for the Blues; we do not leave London for a top-flight fixture until the long trip to Newcastle United in early May.

We enter tonight's match with the Saints – which kicks off at 8.15pm and will be shown live on TNT Sports/Discovery+ in the UK– a single point behind fourth-in-the-table Manchester City. Southampton, in contrast, are bottom and have won once and lost eight times under Ivan Juric, who was appointed in December.

The reverse fixture at St Mary's brought the second-biggest victory of our Premier League campaign: a 5-1 triumph that saw five different goalscorers and four players register assists.

Southampton will be the third club to have changed their coach since our first meeting of the campaign. We defeated the previous two, Wolverhampton Wanderers and West Ham United, in our last two outings at Stamford Bridge (and will welcome the fourth when we take on Leicester City next month).

Should the Blues secure victory against the Saints, we will have secured three consecutive home league wins for the first time this season.

Chelsea team news

Forced off early into our weekend clash against Aston Villa, head coach Enzo Maresca has confirmed that Trevoh Chalobah will be unable to take on Southampton this evening.

‘Trevoh had a check yesterday and he will be [out of action] for around one week to 10 days,’ Maresca explained at his pre-match press conference.

‘On the one hand, it’s good that it’s not a big injury but on the other hand, it is a shame because we lose another player to injury. He won’t play against Southampton but we will see how he is for the next one.’

Centre-backs Wesley Fofana and Benoit Badiashile and midfielder Romeo Lavia remained sidelined, Noni Madueke and Nicolas Jackson are ruled out due to hamstring injuries, and Marc Guiu will also miss out due to injury.

At Villa Park, Maresca opted to deploy Pedro Neto as the spearhead of our attack and the Portuguese made his mark by fashioning Enzo Fernandez's opening goal.

The Blues head coach says that option is one he could again turn to against the Saints.

‘It could be a good option for us with the Nico [Jackson] injury and the Marc Guiu injury,’ he replied. 'We tried with Pedro days before the game and we saw he could do that. It was positive.'

The history

Tonight's game will be the 50th occasion that Chelsea have welcomed Southampton to Stamford Bridge in the league, and our 100th meeting home and away. The Blues have won 22 of the previous 49 on home soil, drawing 14 and losing 13.

The Bridge has witnessed several high-scoring Premier League meetings between the two, including three 4-2 scorelines, two of which ended positively for the Blues.

In August 1997, Ruud Gullit’s team raced into a 4-1 first-half lead before former favourite Ken Monkou scored on his homecoming.

And in April 2017, Eden Hazard and Diego Costa did the damage; the Spain international netted twice and set up his Belgian teammate for the opener. Skipper Gary Cahill also found the net.

Our biggest home wins over the Saints both ended 4-0. We first achieved this scoreline in 1973/74 thanks largely to a Steve Kember brace, and matched it in May 2004 when all goals arrived in a devastating spell between the 59th and 85th minute.

A Martin Cranie own goal set the ball rolling before Frank Lampard (two) and substitute Glen Johnson completed a scoreline that kept us in second place.

The last time Southampton were in SW6, James Ward-Prowse netted the only goal of the game for the managerless Saints.

Know this…

Moises Caicedo regained possession nine times at Villa Park, no top-flight player has recorded more recoveries over the season than his 155.

Enzo Fernandez has contributed to 12 goals – 4 goals, 8 assists – in 30 appearances across all competitions this season, as many as his previous 62 games for Chelsea (7 goals, 5 assists).

Only Leicester (7) have taken the lead fewer times in this season’s Premier League than Southampton (10).

No team has conceded as many shots on target over the campaign as Saints (172). Brentford are next on 151.

Chelsea have lost just three of our past 69 home Premier League games against newly-promoted sides. Fifty-three ended in victory and 13 were drawn.

On 27 February 1974, Chelsea and Stoke played Division One’s first-ever Sunday match. The game kicked off at 2.30pm because of electricity restrictions during the energy crisis.