PRE-MATCH BRIEFING: CHELSEA V NEWCASTLE UNITED

Chelsea could do better at home (results-wise) and Newcastle have not been travelling well. Who will improve most this weekend? Club historian RickGlanvill and club statistician Paul Dutton look at the pointers.

TALKING POINTS
Freezing weather predicted, a three o'clock kick-off, and the visit of our occasional north-eastern whipping boys.

It's a day of winter football traditions, so wrap up in a Champions League night scarf (Geordies may remove their replica shirts if preferred) and hope thatChelsea's home form begins to resemble the free-scoring performances away from Stamford Bridge.

Joe Kinnear has not been around these parts since Zola, Poyet and Petrescudestroyed the Dons 3-0. That was actually ten years ago this month.

Kinnear's current team are one point above the relegation zone and stand alongside Stoke City and Fulham as the only team not to have won away. Yet the Blues' propensity to struggle against teams that park the bus at the Bridge may prove damaging.

Last season there were seven stalemates here in the league; at Old Trafford, where the title resides, they witnessed only one draw. The question is, will theNewcastle bus make it down the A1?

They have lost to Arsenal (0-3), West Ham (1-3) and Fulham (1-2) on visits toLondon this season. Chelsea have so far accumulated ten goals against the Geordies' local rivals Middlesbrough (5-0) and Sunderland (5-0).

KEY STAT Chelsea have conceded four times in 13 Premier League games matches this season - that's just under five hours for every goal let in.

The club is still clouded in rumours of imminent takeovers and the installation of a new management team; Kinnear's short-term contract expires this weekend. Seven matches under 'JFK' have produced two wins, two draws and three defeats. They may look more motivated - especially after the former Crazy Gang boss's half-time tongue-lashings - but the lack of quality across the squad is proving harder to overcome.

It was after Chelsea's win last May at St James' Park that Kevin Keegan announced a different kind of resignation, saying that he saw no way the Tooncould make a Champions League place in his time there, at least without a huge investment in players.

Even then there was no guarantee: 'If someone gives you a barrel-load of money you will still not get all the best players,' he said. 'If it is a choice between Chelsea and Newcastle they will go to Chelsea because great players want to go where the honours are.'

It was a far cry from the early days of his return to Tyneside, when he suggested Toon fans might start 'dreaming again.' Instead it is Chelsea whoare hoping to maintain the title-winning form under Luiz Felipe Scolari and win the league for the first time since 2006.

Saturday evening in Italy sees the long-awaited top-of-the-table clash between Inter (1st) and Juventus (3rd). The San Siro technical area will bring together José 'the Special One' Mourinho and Claudio 'the Tinker Man' Ranieri for the first time since their successive departures from Stamford Bridge.

Juve have had a sudden resurgence, moving from the bottom half to third with five wins on the spin. Inter are playing like a Mourinho team.

Not to put the dampeners on things (so to speak), but five of Chelsea's most recent seven games in all competitions have been played in the wet; eight over the season as a whole. You may have noticed. Especially at Blackburn.Don't be surprised if the professional game suffers an outbreak of 'trench foot'. As usual in the last few years, however, the Stamford Bridge surface looks fantastic.

With freezing temperatures predicted, we'll give an unseasonably warm greeting to our celebrated old boys Damien Duff and Gérémi, or 'Mash Mash' as he was affectionately known in the Chelsea dressing room.

The two are united by much more than starring in a lewd song on the terraces. Both were back-to-back title-winners here in 2004/5 and 2005/6. Welcome home, immortals!

Chelsea have yet to concede in the second half of any league match. José Bosingwa's goal at West Bromwich was his second of the season. Both have been scored away from the Bridge and, crucially, both have opened the scoring. At the Bridge Joe Cole, leads the way in deadlock-breaking goals, with two.

Florent Malouda is proving effective without scoring too many: he has five goal assists to his credit this campaign.

Nicolas Anelka, Chelsea's top scorer, has already surpassed his tally for the previous two league seasons. His 12 goals have come in just 13 matches and with a successful strike every 85 minutes he's been on the field. He is tackling and being fouled less than before, and taking more shots.

Premier League top scorers
Anelka (Chelsea) 12
Ronaldo (Man Utd) 8
Zaki (Wigan) 8
Bent (Tottenham) 7
Agbonlahor (Aston Villa) 7
Robinho (Man City) 7
Defoe (Portsmouth) 6
Geovanni (Hull) 6

Three of the top four kick off at 3pm on Saturday. Liverpool host our westLondon neighbours, who are on something of a revival run. Struggling Arsenal face a potentially tough trip to Eastlands, where Sparky Hughes will be determined to test his managerial counterpart's definition of a 'physical' game.

Perhaps the hardest task falls to United, who play the evening game away to a young Villa brimming with confidence after blowing apart the Gunners last weekend.