This match was scheduled as a live lunchtime kick-off on Saturday 10 September but was postponed after the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, hence its coverage by BT Sport in an unusual time slot.

Ten years ago another Chelsea trip to Craven Cottage on 10 March 2013 was put back to 17 April to accommodate the Blues’ FA Cup quarter-final commitments. Rafael Benitez’s side won the rearranged fixture 3-0, with goals from centre-backs: two for John Terry and a top-corner screamer from David Luiz. Chelsea have won each of the three visits since, most recently with a Mason Mount winner two years ago this month.

Home and away, Fulham’s win rate against their postcode neighbours is the lowest in all 1,542 English Football League fixtures to have been played 50 or more times. The Whites have won seven (9.5 per cent) of their 74 league encounters with Chelsea, who are targeting victory no.50 in this fixture across all competitions.

The Blues have won 19 and lost only one of our 30 Premier League meetings with Fulham, remaining unbeaten in 20 since the 1-0 away loss in March 2006.

Chelsea’s best league win percentage vs current Premier League clubs

Top-flight roots of ‘the WLD’

Top-flight west London derbies have been intermittent over the years because the four contestants – Chelsea, Brentford, Fulham and Queen’s Park Rangers – have each had ups and downs on the league ladder.

Fulham and Brentford met at the highest level for the first time ever only in August this season (a 3-2 home victory for Fulham), while QPR and the Cottagers’ opening Premier League encounter was back in October 2011 (6-0 to Fulham). The Bees and the Rs have remained as separate as they are in the alphabet, never meeting in Division One or the Premier League.

The first top-flight west London derby match was actually played at Stamford Bridge on 23 November 1935 between Chelsea and Brentford, the hosts winning 2-1, watched by 56,624. It was, claimed the Daily Mirror’s reporter, ‘one of the “tamest” Derby games I have seen for years … with not more than a dozen thrills worthy of the name.’ The vital First Division points were claimed by a fierce penalty from winger Dickie Spence.

The original of Chelsea’s top-flight encounters with Fulham came 14 years later at Craven Cottage, young winger Billy Gray bagging for the Blues in September 1949. Our open engagement at the highest level with Queen’s Park Rangers came even later, on 14 September 1968 at Loftus Road. Tommy Baldwin found the net twice, along with Alan Birchenall and, from the spot, Peter Osgood.

So far this season the only near-neighbours Chelsea and Fulham have faced have been Brentford, who were beaten by the Whites but held by the Blues to a draw.We have won nine of the past 11 all-London derbies on the road in the Premier League.

Premier League west London derbies 1992/93-2022/23