A derby that for either side of the Smoke could become the nightmare before Christmas pits Chelsea, the fourth best on the road in the top flight, against Tottenham, the side with a home record bettered only by Leicester and Liverpool.

For decades, defeat in this fixture was unthinkable – the Blues famously managing 17 successive visits to Spurs without defeat. Last season’s 1-3 loss, though, was the sixth in 13. Never the less, the west Londoners have a three-point advantage over Spurs to protect, and a reaction to show after last week’s disappointing showing against Bournemouth.

Perhaps a new stadium will bring best out of Frank Lampard’s men, as top-six and all-London clashes often do. Historically, no team from the capital has won more Premier League derbies than Chelsea (128, level with Arsenal), while only West Ham (100) have lost more such games than Tottenham (87).

This season there is room for improvement. Jose Mourinho has never lost at home to any of his former clubs, but the Blues have won two of our past three top-flight derbies on the road.

Christmas with the ex

It is the last weekend before Christmas, and the festive season would not be the same without a once-a-year get-together and the chance someone has invited the ‘ex’.

It was in the reverse fixture to this back in 2004 that then Chelsea boss Mourinho criticised his current club Spurs’ approach in a 0-0 draw. It was the debut in England of the ‘parking the bus’ analogy: ‘Tottenham might as well have put the team bus in front of their goal,’ he said. ‘Sometimes when you are a big club, a very small club comes to your stadium.’

Now comes a club coached by one of the key men to play under him, Frank Lampard, who scored 71 times in 215 appearances under the Portuguese, and whose absence with a thigh injury in September 2007 may even have precipitated the Special One’s first departure from west London.

His trusty lieutenant will not expect any niceties on Sunday. When Lampard played for Manchester City against Mourinho’s Chelsea, our then boss declared, ‘When he decided to go to a direct competitor then love stories are over’.

Clinical observations

The week just passed was the first without a midweek or international fixture since the end of August, freeing up training ground time for Lampard and his staff to work with the whole squad.

One aspect they will look to improve is the team’s efficiency in front of goal. In the six matches up to the defeat by Manchester City, the Blues took all 18 points, averaging 18 attempts, almost eight of which were on target, and scoring 2.5 goals per game.

In the five league games from City to Bournemouth the Londoners’ shots on goal were only marginally diminished but accuracy had dropped by 28 per cent, with a 57 per cent lower strike rate.

Premier League top scorers

Jamie Vardy 16Tammy Abraham 11Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang 11Marcus Rashford 10Sergio Aguero 9Danny Ings 9Harry Kane 9Sadio Mane 9Teemu Pukki 9Mohamed Salah 9Raheem Sterling 9

At the other end of the field the Blues are conceding a few more chances and more goals than during the unbeaten run. Yet after the Cherries loss, Lampard was more critical of the innocuous passing between defenders and has said he wants more bravery and intensity, and a higher tempo.

Earlier in the season the Blues were able to carve teams apart with quick, progressive passing through the middle, but opposition sides now position personnel to block the supply to leading scorer Tammy Abraham. New routes have to be found, and form rediscovered.

On Saturday the centre-backs had a few through-passes intercepted and opted instead for the long diagonal balls, as Eddie Howe would have liked, and Abraham was often isolated. That said, had Chelsea scored the three big chances created, Dan Gosling’s goal would have been a mere consolation.

Spurs under Mourinho

Tottenham, playing this derby for the first time at their new home, with the prospect of overtaking the west Londoners on goal difference, and with Mourinho in the dug-out, will have their tails up just as much as Everton did a few weeks ago.

As with the Toffees, there is likely to be a ferocious intensity to Tottenham’s pressing for the opening 20 minutes, and possibly a weariness towards the end, as they have been outscored by opponents over the last half hour of games by eight goals to 12.The former Chelsea coach has already made a few tweaks to the Pochettino approach. He has asked his front three to stay high and press consistently to keep attacking full-backs occupied so team his defence can stand higher upfield. At Wolves, though, they were unable to sustain that and dropped deeper. The hosts won plenty of corners but to little effect – possibly as a result of the new coach’s reorganisation.

FA Cup and Champions League catch-up

FA Cup opponents Nottingham Forest, without a win in four outings, visit Huddersfield Town on Saturday. They will play the same number of games as Chelsea between now and their round three repeat visit on 4 January.

Champions League opponents Bayern Munich take on the Bundesliga’s best defence, Wolfsburg, on Saturday before embarking on a winter break lasting until 19 January.

Season of goodwill

This is Premier League match number 18 for both teams, the penultimate one in which a player receiving a fifth yellow card will incur a suspension. Players currently on four cautions include Chelsea’s Mateo Kovacic, and Eric Dier and Harry Winks of Tottenham.

The next thresholds are for 10 yellow cards accumulated up to and including the 32nd fixture (punished with a two-match suspension) and 15 cautions up to the end of the season (three matches).

Overall, Arsenal players have been booked the most to date: 38 times. Tottenham are sixth with 34, while Chelsea are 15th with 27. Spurs still hold the team record for most yellows shown in one match – the 2-2 draw at the Bridge in May 2016.

As far as fouls are concerned, Moussa Sissokho is Spurs’ worst offender this season, committing 27 infringements, with Harry Kane on 23. Chelsea’s most whistled player is N’Golo Kante with 18, and only three Premier League clubs this season have committed fewer fouls than Chelsea (339): West Ham (331), Manchester City (328) and Liverpool (315). The Blues are also the third-most fouled side behind Arsenal and Bournemouth.

Breaking new ground

It was 110 years ago last Wednesday that this match-up was played for the first time at Stamford Bridge. Jimmy Windridge bagged the winner with his head in a 2-1 victory enjoyed by 50,000 spectators. Our ancestral home has become even more precious in the past few years with London rivals Arsenal, Tottenham and West Ham all relocating.

This will be Chelsea’s first visit to the Lilywhites’ new stadium, which is adjacent to the old White Hart Lane. Memorably, the Blues beat Spurs 2-1 in our maiden league bow at their temporary Wembley home in 2017, thanks to a Marcos Alonso brace. Victory in Yorkshire a few months later maintained an unbeaten record on new grounds that now stretches back 18 years.

Attendances at Tottenham’s new arena have fluctuated from 51,743 for the visit of Red Star Belgrade to the current stadium record of 60,407 at the opening league game against Aston Villa.

Though the rumoured ‘VIP cheese room’ sadly failed the cut and transport infrastructure still draws wrath from some, the stadium does boast a retractable NFL pitch, stored beneath the South Stand, which solves a problem from the Nineties.

In 1996 when American Football was first staged regularly at White Hart Lane, London Monarchs quit after a single summer season blaming the quality of the pitch as well as small crowds. After staging the last of their home games at Stamford Bridge in June 1996, a marginally better-attended clash with Rhein Fire, the Monarchs signed a two-season deal with Chelsea instead.

‘American football fits in well with the development and profile of Stamford Bridge,’ commented the Blues’ then managing director Colin Hutchinson, ‘and because there are only five fixtures there shouldn’t be much damage to the playing surface.’ Clive Allen, a centre-forward for both London clubs, was a specialist ‘kicker’ at the Bridge in 1997.

VAR communications upgrade

The Premier League has asked its technology partner, Hawk-eye, to provide more detail to be displayed on screens during VAR reviews, as well as a faster turnaround in the video replay of incidents. The new procedures should be in place this weekend.

There is plenty of Premier League action and old matches against Tottenham available to view on The 5th Stand, in the exclusive box sets series

Premier League fixtures

SaturdayEverton v Arsenal 12.30pm (BT Sport)Aston Villa v Southampton 3pmBournemouth v Burnley 3pmBrighton v Sheffield United 3pmNewcastle v Crystal Palace 3pmNorwich v Wolves 3pmManchester City v Leicester 5.30pm (Sky Sports)

SundayWatford v Manchester United 2pm (Sky Sports)Tottenham v Chelsea 4.30pm (Sky Sports)

• West Ham v Liverpool has been postponed as a result of the Reds’ participation in the Club World Cup.