Chelsea match preview

• West Ham United host Chelsea on Saturday in their eighth home Barclays Premier League fixture of the season. The Hammers will contest their fourth 12.45pm kick-off of the 2012/13 campaign, having travelled to Swansea City and Norwich City and hosted Fulham on a Saturday lunch-time previously this term.

• West Ham United go into the weekend tenth in the Barclays Premier League table, having collected 19 points from their opening 14 fixtures. However, the Hammers will be eager to pick up points after collecing five from their five league games in November.

• Newly-promoted West Ham United start the weekend in tenth, having picked up 12 points from seven home Barclays Premier League games so far, beating Aston Villa (1-0), Fulham (3-0) and Southampton (4-1), drawing with Sunderland (1-1), Manchester City (0-0) and Stoke City (1-1) and losing out to Arsenal (1-3).

• Chelsea play their third game since the appointment of Spaniard Rafael Benitez as the club's new interim manager on 22 November.

• Chelsea start the weekend in third position, having collected 26 points from their opening 14 matches. The Blues have won three, drawn two and lost just one of their six away league matches played so far.

• The Blues have failed to score in any of their last three matches in all competitions, losing 3-0 at Juventus in the UEFA Champions League before drawing 0-0 with Manchester City and Fulham in the Barclays Premier League.

• West Ham United have not beaten Chelsea in any of their previous 13 meetings - 12 of them in the Premier League and six of them at the Boleyn Ground. The Hammers' most-recent victory over the Blues came on 3 May 2003, when Paolo Di Canio scored the winning goal in a 1-0 success at the Boleyn Ground. Di Canio also netted twice in a 3-2 victory at Stamford Bridge in the reverse fixture that season on 28 September 2002.

• Chelsea have won the previous three Premier League matches between the two clubs, scoring ten goals and conceding just two.


Team news

West Ham United

• Mark Noble is likely to return to the starting line-up after missing Wednesday's trip to Old Trafford through suspension.

• Ricardo Vaz Te (shoulder), Alou Diarra (thigh) and Jack Collison (knee) are all definitely out, while Yossi Benayoun is unavailable due to the terms of his loan from parent club Chelsea.

• Stephen Henderson (Ipswich Town), Ravel Morrison (Birmingham City) and Rob Hall (Birmingham City) are all out on loan, as are youngsters Paul McCallum (AFC Wimbledon), Blair Turgott (Bradford City) and Dan Potts (Colchester United).

Chelsea

• England trio forward Daniel Sturridge (hamstring), defender John Terry (knee) and midfielder Frank Lampard (calf) all remain sidelined through injury.

• Centre-back David Luiz is suspended after picking up his fifth booking of the season against Fulham on Wednesday evening.

Background

• Saturday's fixture marks the 87th league meeting between the two clubs. West Ham United will draw level with their opponents on 35 victories should they be successful, while there have been just 17 draws. In 30 Premier League meetings, Chelsea have chalked up 16 victories, West Ham have won nine times and there have been just five draws.

• The first-ever meeting between the two clubs in any competition came on 11 September 1915 in the war-time London Combination principal tournament. West Ham United were at home and the game ended goalless.

• The first-ever league meeting between the two clubs took place on 20 October 1923 and also ended goalless. That match was played at Division One at Stamford Bridge.

• West Ham United's biggest league victory over Chelsea came in Division Two on Valentine's Day 1981. The Hammers romped to a 4-0 success on their way to winning the title and promotion to the top-flight. West Ham have never beaten Chelsea by more than a single-goal margin in the Premier League, doing so on nine occasions.

• Chelsea's biggest win over West Ham United came on 9 April 1966 at Stamford Bridge, when the Blues thumped the Hammers 6-2. At the Boleyn Ground, Chelsea won 4-0 on 1 March 2008, a result that also marks the Blues' biggest Premier League win over the Hammers.

• The biggest crowd to witness a West Ham United versus Chelsea fixture at the Boleyn Ground was the 39,240 who witnessed a 2-2 Division One draw on 22 August 1970.

• The two clubs met exactly 95 years ago on 1 December 1917, when Danny Shea scored West Ham United's goal in a 1-1 war-time London Combination principal tournament fixture. Chelsea also hosted the Hammers on 1 December 2007, when Joe Cole scored the only goal of the game to end West Ham's six-match unbeaten run.

• Tony Cottee has scored more goals against Chelsea than any other West Ham United player, scoring eight times. Geoff Hurst and John Dick managed six each, while the Hammers' all-time leading scorer Vic Watson scored three in five appearances against the Blues.

• John Bond scored the first league hat-trick by a West Ham United player against Chelsea when he was pressed into an emergency centre-forward role on 6 February 1960. Right-back Bond netted three times, including one penalty, in a 4-2 Division One success at the Boleyn Ground. Billy Bonds also netted an unlikely hat-trick against Chelsea in a 3-0 Division One home win on 2 March 1974.

Last time out

Wednesday 28 November 2012
Barclays Premier League
Manchester United 1-0 West Ham United
West Ham United: Jaaskelainen, Reid, Tomkins, O'Brien, Collins, Demel, Nolan, Jarvis (Maiga 70), Taylor, Diame (O'Neil 76), Carroll (Cole 62).
Subs not used: Spiegel, Spence, Moncur, Lletget

Wednesday 28 November 2012
Barclays Premier League
Chelsea 0-0 Fulham
Chelsea: Cech, Ivanovic, Cole, David Luiz, Azpilicueta, Bertrand (Mata 63), Romeu, Ramires, Oscar, Hazard (Marin 82), Torres.
Subs not used: Turnbull, Ferreira, Cahill, Mikel, Moses


Previous meeting

Fernando Torres scored his first Chelsea goal to end a personal goalless stretch lasting 903 minutes. The Spain forward sealed the points for the Blues after Frank Lampard had opened the scoring from close range. Florent Malouda completed the scoring in the third minute of added time to increase West Ham United's relegation fears.

West Ham United: Green, Gabbidon, Spector, Da Costa, Bridge, Jacobsen, Hitzlsperger, Noble (Keane 59), Cole (Piquionne 78), Sears (Obinna 81), Ba
Subs not used: Boffin, Tomkins, Boa Morte, Kovac

Chelsea: Cech, Ivanovic, Luiz, Terry, A.Cole, Essien (Benayoun 56), Lampard, Mikel, Malouda, Kalou (Anelka 70), Drogba (Torres 76)
Subs not used: Turnbull, Ferrerira, Bertrand, Zhirkov

2011/12 Premier League 6th (64 points)
2010/11 Premier League 2nd (71 points)
2009/10 Premier League 1st (86 points - champions)
2008/09 Premier League 3rd (83 points)
2007/08 Premier League 2nd (85 points)
2006/07 Premier League 2nd (83 points)
2005/06 Premier League 1st (91 points - champions)
2004/05 Premier League 1st (95 points - champions)
2003/04 Premier League 2nd (79 points)
2002/03 Premier League 4th (67 points)


Referee

• Saturday's match referee will be Martin Atkinson.

• A referee since the age of 16, Atkinson was promoted to the Football League list of assistant referees in 1998. In 2000, Atkinson was promoted to the Select Group of assistant referees, allowing him to run the line in Premier League matches.

• Atkinson joined the National List of referees for the Football League at the start of the 2003/04 season before taking charge of his first Premier League fixture on 20 April 2005 when Manchester City entertained Birmingham City.

• Atkinson was the man in the middle at the 2006 FA Community Shield between Chelsea and Liverpool at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. He also took charge of the 2008 FA Trophy final between Ebbsfleet United and Torquay United at Wembley Stadium.

• Atkinson refereed one West Ham game last season - the 2-1 home defeat to Burnley on 3 December 2011 and was the man in the middle earlier this season as the Hammers lost 3-0 to Swansea City

Old boys

• Carlton Cole began his career at Chelsea, making 31 appearances between August 2001 and May 2006, and scoring eight times.

• Chelsea's Frank Lampard began his professional career at West Ham United, making 187 league and cup appearances and scoring 38 goals before heading west in June 2001.

• On-loan midfielder Yossi Benayoun is owned by Chelsea. The Israeli international spent two seasons at West Ham in his first spell between July 2005 and July 2007, scoring eight goals in 72 appearances. Benayoun started the 2006 FA Cup final for the Hammers and also played a starring role in the 'Great Escape' season of 2006/07.

• Chelsea captain John Terry spent time at West Ham United as a schoolboy.

• Among the other players who have represented both clubs are Clive Allen, Syd Bishop, Peter Brabrook, Billy Bridgeman, Billy Brown, Robert Bush, Dickie Deacon, Alan Dickens, Len Goulden, Jimmy Greaves, Ron Greenwood CBE, George Hilsdon, George Horn, Joseph Hughes, Sir Geoff Hurst, William Jackson, Glen Johnson, Joe Kirkup, Andy Malcolm, Harry Medhurst, Scott Minto, Eric Parsons, Joe Payne, Dave Sexton, John Sissons, Ron Tindall and Billy Williams.


General information

• For ticket information, click here.

• For the latest travel news visit the TFL website by clicking here and use the Journey Planner.

• Saturday afternoon's forecast in East London is white clouds with maximum temperatures of 4C (40F).