Can Burnley end Chelsea's 21-game unbeaten run?

Twenty-one unbeaten in the league, Chelsea roll into Turf Moor with the air of a side that has forgotten how to lose. Burnley, meanwhile, are limping into the new year with three key players on the treatment table and a recent cup exit to League One opposition still stinging.

Uche Olawale, Hunor Mező and Lukas Giamattei are all out for the Clarets, robbing them of options at the back and in midfield just when they need every able body. Chelsea are not without their own absentees – Jairzinho and Thomas Verlhac are missing – but the depth in the away dressing room is of a different order.

The last three meetings tell their own story: 0-2, 2-0, 1-3. Chelsea have won them all, and won them without much fuss. Burnley have not beaten Chelsea in this fixture for over a decade, and the gap between a Championship side and the champions of England has rarely looked wider.

Yet the FA Cup has a habit of throwing up surprises, and Burnley will cling to that. A packed Turf Moor, a cold January afternoon, and the chance to bloody the nose of a giant – that is the stuff of cup folklore. But the visitors arrive unbeaten in 21 league games all season, a run that stretches back to the spring and shows no sign of ending.

The Carabao Cup exit to Preston in August is a fresh wound for Burnley. Colin Neill's second-half strike that night consigned the Clarets to an early exit, and they will be desperate to avoid a similar fate here. But desire alone rarely beats a side with Chelsea's quality, and Calin Dimario's men will expect to progress.

For Burnley, the task is simple and brutal: stop a side that has not lost in the league all season, with a patched-up team and a fanbase praying for a miracle. For Chelsea, it is another step on the road to another trophy, and another chance to show that even a global giant can relish a cold afternoon in Lancashire.