High-flying Chelsea host out-of-sorts Schalke at the start of the Champions League group stages, with the Blues hot favourites to claim maximum points.

Buoyed by the excellent summer recruitment, the Stamford Bridge outfit enjoyed a bright start to the season, winning all four Premier League fixtures with goals to spare.

With Diego Costa and Cesc Fabregas establishing a great partnership, the Blues have already bagged 15 goals, hammering rock-solid Swansea side 4-2 at the weekend.

The players are now high on confidence ahead of the Schalke game, where Chelsea are 1.95 (19/20) for a half-time/full-time win.

Seeing as how the hectic fixture schedule is about to start, Jose Mourinho is bound to rest some of his star players, while Didier Drogba is unlikely to feature due to an ankle problem.

Diego Costa and Eden Hazard could both miss out with hamstring injuries, while Loic Remy, Willian, Ramires and Filipe Luis could start.

Probable starting line-up (4-2-3-1): Cech – Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, Luis – Ramires, Matic – Schurrle, Oscar, Willian – Remy.

With plenty of quality players in their ranks and several quality arrivals, Schalke were expected to build on the promising last season, but things haven’t exactly gone according to plan.

The Miners were eliminated from the DFB Pokal by Dynamo Dresden before taking just one point from first three Bundesliga fixtures.

The weekend’s 4-1 loss to Borussia M’gladbach has acted as an additional blow to the players’ confidence, so no wonder nobody expects the Germans to match Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

Boss Jens Keller has been unable to find his best starting 11 and is currently making too many changes, which only adds to the worries.

The good news is that Klaas Jan Huntelaar is finally fit to start, but Fabian Giefer, Jan Kirchhoff, Felipe Santana, Sead Kolasinac, Joel Matip, Leon Goretzka and Jefferson Farfan are all out injured.

Probable starting line-up (4-2-3-1): Fahrmann – Hoger, Ayhan, Howedes, Aogo – Boateng, Neustadter – Sam, Meyer, Draxler – Huntelaar.