A much-changed Chelsea side will look to make it 12 wins on the bounce on Boxing Day when they take on Bournemouth at Stamford Bridge.
Pivotal first-team players N’Golo Kante and Diego Costa will both be missing from the game, having each picked up their fifth yellow cards of the season against Crystal Palace last weekend.
As a result, Antonio Conte looks likely to introduce fringe players Cesc Fabregas, who has recently been in fantastic form, and Belgian striker Michy Batshuayi, who has also performed admirably despite limited opportunities at the club.
Bournemouth, on the other hand, have made a mixed start to the season accumulating a very respectable 21 points thus far, despite losing 3-1 to South coast rivals Southampton last Saturday.
Their weakness lies at the back, where they have conceded 28 goals, the highest total for a team in the top half of the table.
While their free-flowing attack is spearheaded by the lightening quick potency of Calum Wilson, with loanee midfield general Jack Wilshire pulling the strings for Eddie Howe’s men.
The Cherries will be without Junior Stanislas and Lewis Cook through respective ankle injuries, whilst cultivated central midfielder Andrew Surman is ruled out with a hamstring injury. Nathan Ake will also be unable to feature against his parent club on Boxing Day.
On top of the aforementioned suspensions of Diego Costa and N’Golo Kante, Chelsea will again be missing veteran defender John Terry, however Eden Hazard has trained with the first-team squad ahead of the fixture.
