Fulham are the visitors to Stamford Bridge this afternoon in the first Premiership game since Jose Mourinho left the club and the match is new coach Avram Grant's first home game in charge. I believe there is still lots of anger and resentment at the way Jose departed and it will be interesting to see how the fans react for the first time in force today.
Good news for Chelsea fans. Yesterday in the pre-match conference, Grant announced that Didier Drogba is expected to be named in today's squad, Lampard and Carvalho are 'only days' away from retuning to the squad themselves.
Chelsea hasn't scored a League goal in three - two defeats against Aston Villa and Man Utd plus the 0-0 home draw against Blackburn last time out. But the team's confidence must be high after the midweek win over Hull City.
For Fulham however, they crashed out of the Cup after extra-time in midweek and reports suggest that Volz and McBride are two of six players that are unvailable today. Also unvailable are Christanval, Jimmy Bullard, Lee Cook and Ian Pearce.
But this is Chelsea v Fulham, a West London Derby (not the biggest derby in the World) so anything can happen!!!
In six Premiership matches at Stamford Bridge since 2002, Chelsea has won 4 - 2-1, 3-2, 3-2, 3-1 and there have been 2 draws - 1-1, 2-2 (last season).
KTBFFH