Thomas Tuchel has enjoyed a remarkable start to life in West London since replacing Frank Lampard in late January, with the German guiding the Blues to both the FA Cup and Champions League final as well as placing his side firmly in the driving seat for the top four.
Chelsea meet league leaders Manchester City in the Champions League final later this month, but must first face each other in a Premier League game that is littered with sub-plots.
A win for Pep Guardiola's side would confirm their third league title in four seasons while a Chelsea victory would go some way to sealing their top-four fate.
The Chelsea manager commented on the number of storylines surrounding the league clash before the game this evening, telling Sky Sports: "Honestly, I don’t like the subjects around this game so much, so there was a semi-final in the cup, now there’s the Champions League final coming up and they can be champions, and we have some changes.
"Too many subjects, I don’t like it so much. I like it when the whistle goes and we demand we do our best possible.
"It will be a tough one, no matter who is on the other side of the pitch for City, they’re a huge team, they play together for many, many years and it’s a tough challenge."
Tuchel made five changes to his starting 11 for the clash at the Etihad, perhaps in a bid to throw his counterpart in the opposite dug-out off the scent of how Chelsea may set up for the Champions League final.
He explained the reasoning behind the tweaks to his team, revealing: "It was a huge effort, (the Champions League semi-final) not only physically but also mentally and we had one day less to recover.
"You could see in the FA Cup semi-final what they could do with a day more of recovery. We needed to do some changes to prove that we have trust in our full squad, which we have. They also have a lot of changes, so game’s on."
City also made wholesale changes, with just two players who started their semi-final victory over Paris Saint-Germain lining up to take on the Blues.
The former Dortmund coach has made Chelsea a force to be reckoned with defensively, registering 11 clean sheets under his leadership - the most since his arrival.
Tuchel is yet to lose a Premier League game away from Stamford Bridge, only tasting league defeat once - a shock result at home which saw West Brom run out 5-2 winners.
