Chelsea will be attempting to equal a Football League record when they play host to Crystal Palace.
The Blues will be competing in their fifth game in the space of two weeks after what has been a hectic start to life at Stamford Bridge for Enzo Maresca.
So far, the Italian has two wins and two defeats under his watch, albeit the second coming in a scenario where Chelsea still qualified for the Europa Conference League group phase.
After heavily-rotating his side for the fixture with Servette in Switzerland, Maresca will revert back to what he feels is his strongest starting lineup for the meeting with the Eagles.
If history is anything to go by, the former Leicester City boss will be expecting his new Chelsea side to bounce back with maximum points.
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Chelsea looking to equal long-standing streak
Chelsea hold a dominant record over Palace in Premier League fixtures, impressively posting 24 victories from their 30 encounters with their London neighbours.
More notably, Chelsea are currently on a run of 13 consecutive triumphs, leaving them one short of the Football-League record of 14 that Manchester City have posted against Bournemouth in terms of wins over the same opponents.
Another eye-catching statistic comes in the form of the lack of draws. The last stalemate came all the way back in March 1995 when they played out a goalless fixture at Stamford Bridge.
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Not all positive for Chelsea...
Although the West Londoners gave a solid account of themselves against Manchester City on the opening weekend of the season, they ultimately succumbed by a 2-0 scoreline.
Should Chelsea lose to Palace on Sunday afternoon, it would represent the first time since 1978 that have lost their first two home league games of a campaign.
On a positive note, though, Chelsea have recorded four successive wins in London derbies at Stamford Bridge, keeping clean sheets in the last three.
In sharp contrast, Palace have only prevailed from one of their last 21 away all-capital showdowns, which was a 2-1 success at West Ham United in November 2022.
Palace are also attempting to avoid losing their first three league games in a league season in 2017-18, a campaign in which they suffered seven successive defeats.
Darren Plant
