Chelsea v Everton preview: Cesc Fabregas back in training

Chelsea will be chasing a fifth successive league victory for the first time since May 2014 when they host Everton on Saturday.

Since switching to a three-man defence four games ago, Antonio Conte's side have not conceded a goal - their best run of clean sheets in a season since a five-game run in 2009.

The switch in system has revitalised Eden Hazard, who has has scored in his last three games taking his total to five for the season, which is already more than he managed in 31 games last campaign. 

Everton snapped a run of five games without a win with a 2-0 victory over West Ham United last Sunday. Since taking charge in the summer, Ronald Koeman has sured up the Everton defence to the extent that they have the second best defensive record in the league, conceding just eight goals in 10 matches. 

Team news

Conte has no fresh injury worries ahead of the match and is likely to play the same team that saw off Southampton 2-0 on Super Sunday. 

Kurt Zouma and Cesc Fabregas remain injury doubts, but have started training with the first-team.

Everton goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg has recovered from a foot injury but defender Leighton Baines and midfielder James McCarthy remain unavailable due to hamstring problems.

Striker Arouna Kone (knee) is also not yet ready for action, and midfielder Idrissa Gueye will miss out as he serves a suspension, but forward Enner Valencia can return to the match-day squad after being ineligible last time out against his parent club West Ham.

It remains to be seen whether Koeman restores captain Phil Jagielka to the team after dropping him to the bench and replacing him in central defence with Ramiro Funes Mori for the 2-0 victory over the Hammers.

Opta stats

Chelsea are unbeaten in their last 21 home Premier League games against Everton since a 0-1 loss in November 1994 (W11 D10). Only against Tottenham (24) are they on a longer unbeaten Premier League run at Stamford Bridge.

Everton's run of 21 games without a win is their longest away at another club in the Premier League. Only against Leeds (36) have they had a longer away run without a win in league history.

John Terry rescued a point for Chelsea in this exact fixture last season, scoring after 97:53 minutes to make it 3-3 - the latest goal recorded in the Premier League in 2015-16.

Everton have scored exactly three goals in three of their last four Premier League meetings with Chelsea, failing to score in the other (W1 D1 L2).

Chelsea have exactly double the number of points (22) that they had after 10 Premier League games last season (11).

Yannick Bolasie has assisted four goals for Romelu Lukaku this season, which is more than any other player for a single team-mate in the Premier League this season.

Merson's prediction

Since getting ripped apart at the Emirates Chelsea have been very good, probably the in-form team in the Premier League. Everton turned their slump around against West Ham but Chelsea will be too good here.

They might just be a bit light to win the title, if Eden Hazard or Diego Costa got injured and were out for a while they'd struggle, but they look like top-four material now. Not a lot of teams could go and do what they did against Southampton, who are a decent football team but they didn't give them a look in.

Paul predicts: 2-0 (13/2 with Sky Bet)

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Betting

Chelsea are odds-on for the victory at 8/15 with Sky Bet, putting Everton up against odds of 19/4 to win and 16/5 for the draw. Antonio Conte's men shortened to 5/1 for the title after another impressive victory last weekend, while the Toffees were cut to 12/1 for a top-four finish after their own 2-0 triumph