Chelsea seeking Shakhtar improvement

Chelsea FC are used to having things their own way at home in the UEFA Champions League and, after being held at Stamford Bridge on matchday one, they will be looking to return to winning ways with the visit of FC Shakhtar Donetsk.

• That will be no easy task, however, against a team who beat the holders 2-1 in Ukraine on matchday three thanks to goals from Alex Teixeira (3) and Fernandinho (52), Oscar's late reply not enough for the London club.

• Chelsea had kick-started their Group E campaign with a 4-0 win at competition newcomers FC Nordsjælland on matchday two having let slip a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 at home to Juventus in their first match. Shakhtar opened with a 2-0 home defeat of Nordsjælland before drawing 1-1 at Juve.

• The Ukrainian visitors are still looking for their first win in England but can take inspiration from their coach Mircea Lucescu, who led Beşiktaş JK to a 2-0 win at Stamford Bridge on 1 October 2003. It was Chelsea's last home defeat in the group stage; they have since gone unbeaten in 27 such games.

Match background
• The game in Donetsk was the first time Chelsea had met opponents from Ukraine while all the English teams Shakhtar have faced were based in London.

• The 2011/12 Ukrainian double winners have lost on three of their four visits to England. They only avoided defeat with a 1-1 draw at Tottenham Hotspur FC in the 2008/09 UEFA Cup round of 32, having won the home first leg 2-0, and went on to lift the trophy.

• A year later their title defence was ended by a 1-1 home draw against Fulham FC at the same stage after a 2-1 first-leg loss in London.

• Their last visit ended in a 5-1 reverse at Arsenal FC in the 2010/11 UEFA Champions League group stage. They also went down 3-2 away to the Gunners in the 2000/01 first group stage.

• Chelsea won all three home group games in 2011/12, scoring ten goals without conceding, and recorded three more home victories in the knockout stages as they claimed the trophy for the first time.

• Shakhtar began last season's group stage with a 2-1 defeat at FC Porto and also lost 1-0 at FC Zenit St Petersburg. They concluded with a 2-0 victory at APOEL FC but still finished fourth in the section.

Team ties
• Tomáš Hübschman was part of the AC Sparta Praha team that lost 1-0 at home to Chelsea before drawing 0-0 away in the 2003/04 UEFA Champions League group stage.

• Petr Čech and Hübschman are team-mates for the Czech Republic and played together at Sparta in 2001/02.

• In his three-year spell with Arsenal FC between 2007 and 2010, Eduardo only once faced Chelsea in the Premier League, losing 3-0 at home on 29 November 2009.

• On 9 September 2009 Eduardo scored in Croatia's 5-1 defeat against England in a 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifier at Wembley. Frank Lampard struck twice for the home team.

• Lampard was on target again at Wembley on 11 September, beating Andriy Pyatov from the penalty spot to earn England a 1-1 draw against Ukraine in qualifying for the 2014 World Cup. Yaroslav Rakitskiy played the whole match with Marko Dević and Vyacheslav Shevchuk coming on. Daniel Sturridge and Ryan Bertrand made competitive senior international debuts as substitutes for England.

• Pyatov, Rakitskiy and Dević all started the 1-0 group stage loss to England in Donetsk that eliminated co-hosts Ukraine from UEFA EURO 2012 on 19 June. Shevchuk and Olexandr Kucher were unused substitutes while Cole and John Terry played 90 minutes for England.

• Last year Oscar played alongside Ilsinho for SC Internacional.

• David Luiz helped SL Benfica to a 2-1 win in Donetsk in the 2007/08 group stage.

• Fernandinho and Willian play with Luiz, Ramires and Oscar in the Brazilian national team.