Graham Potter will take charge of his first Premier League match as the head coach of Chelsea this weekend.
His Blues side go to Selhurst Park to take on Crystal Palace in what will be Chelsea's first league match in 28 days when Saturday afternoon rolls around. Chelsea's last match in the competition was the 2-1 win against West Ham United – which seems an absolute eternity ago in football terms.
Back then, Thomas Tuchel was the Chelsea boss and there were no signs – to the outside, at least – that his job was under threat. However, just four days later, the German was relieved of his duties at Stamford Bridge.
READ MORE: Seven forgotten Chelsea stars Graham Potter must turn to amid Premier League fixture chaos
Now, as we prepare to enter October, Chelsea have a new head coach in Potter and supporters are eager to see what the former Brighton boss will bring to the club. First up for the 47-year-old is a London derby against Palace.
Chelsea's recent record in London derbies is quite strong. In their last 10 matches – in the Premier League – against opposition from the capital, the Blues have came out victorious on six occasions, while losing three and drawing one.
Their last five London derbies have all been at home. They were supposed to take on Fulham away from home a couple of weeks ago, but the match was postponed to pay respect to the Queen, who died just days before.
In that time, Chelsea have had a variety of goal scorers – which kind of sums the side up. Nobody in the squad has really taken on the role of being that 20-goal-a-season player, who scores every week.
In fact, the man with the most goals in the last 10 league London derbies is no other than Thiago Silva. We all know Silva for being one of the best defenders of his generation, and at 38 years old, he's still going strong. But nobody would have expected that stat.
The Brazil international has scored three goals in those 10 London derbies – with the goals all coming last season against Tottenham (in the 2-0 win at Stamford Bridge and the 3-0 win away from home) and West Ham United (3-2 defeat at the London Stadium).
In the same time, Ben Chilwell, Antonio Rudiger and Hakim Ziyech all got themselves two goals, while Kalidou Koulibaly, Reece James, Mason Mount, Kai Havertz, Christian Pulisic, Timo Werner, Cesar Azpilicueta and N'Golo Kante all scored one.
Silva leads the way in the goalscoring department and let's face it, he was probably Chelsea's best defender in the majority of those games as well. A goal this weekend in another derby would be ideal for Potter as he looks to get off to the perfect start with his new side in the Premier League.
At this stage, though, it is unclear what defensive line Potter will choose at Selhurst Park. In his only match so far – the 1-1 draw with Red Bull Salzburg over a fortnight ago – the head coach went with a 3-5-2 formation.
We could indeed see that again. What his time at Brighton tells us is that he, like Tuchel, favours a three-back system. The defenders that started against Salzburg were Azpilicueta, Silva and Marc Cucurella.
Wesley Fofana, the Blues' biggest signing of the summer financially, started on the bench, with another big-money man in Koulibaly also on the bench. On paper, a back-three of Fofana, Silva and Koulibaly looks to be Chelsea's best.
2pm on Saturday, when team news is officially released, will be a very interesting one for Chelsea supporters. Let's hope, for the sake of this article if nothing else, that Silva is in the middle of the defensive trio on Saturday.
READ NEXT:
Graham Potter slammed for shock Raheem Sterling use ahead of Crystal Palace vs Chelsea
Reece James picks out his best-ever Chelsea match and what needs to change under Graham Potter
Graham Potter receives major N'Golo Kante injury boost ahead of Crystal Palace vs Chelsea clash
AC Milan suffer fresh injury blow with six star players now set to miss Chelsea clash
