Chelsea have a chance to put their rocky start to the season even further behind when they host West Ham in the Premier League today.

With Manchester United not in action until Monday, when the defending champions host Fulham, victory over the Hammers could lift Chelsea as high as second place.

The Blues only picked up 11 points from their first seven matches, but have improved since replacing coach Jose Mourinho with Avram Grant in September and are now unbeaten in 13 games in all competitions.

“Everybody thought Chelsea were dead,” striker Didier Drogba said. “We were a bit down but we know what we can do, and now we can do things a bit better than a few weeks ago.

“We knew we could do it so we just worked hard and it all came together.”

Drogba has hit eight goals in his past eight matches. He is working hard to get the club into a strong position before departing with teammates John Obi Mikel and Michael Essien for the African Cup of Nations in Ghana between January and February..

The Ivory Coast forward has retracted comments he made following Mourinho’s departure, when he said he wanted to quit the club.

Grant must decide whether to persist with Drogba as a lone forward, his most likely decision, or bring in a support striker such as Salomon Kalou.

Chelsea have 28 points from 14 games, five fewer than leaders Arsenal, who are at Aston Villa. United have 30, while third-place Manchester City have 29 ahead of today’s match at Wigan.

West Ham are trying to stretch their own unbeaten run to seven games in all competitions, but have the poorest record of the Premier League’s five London clubs in derby matches this season.

Alan Curbishley, manager of 10th-place West Ham, is likely to recall striker Dean Ashton after he recovered from a broken cheekbone, while midfielders Scott Parker and Fredrik Ljungberg could also return to the team.

Manchester City, though, can take second place if they beats Wigan, who will be playing their first match since appointing manager Steve Bruce.

Wigan are next-to-last in the Premier League, but could recall England striker Emile Heskey to the starting line-up for the first time since he broke a foot bone in September.

And City will be without midfield playmaker Elano, who hurt his hamstring in training on Thursday.

“We know very well what Elano means to us in the last third of the pitch,” City manager Sven-Goran Eriksson said. “He and maybe Martin Petrov are involved in most of the goals we are scoring, but that’s life.

“We have to show we can play good football and make results without Elano.”

Manchester United lost 1-0 to Bolton last weekend, the first time in 10 games the Red Devils failed to score.

They rebounded with a 2-1 midweek win over Sporting Lisbon in the Champions League and should be boosted by the return of Wayne Rooney against Fulham.

The England striker has not played since 11 November after twisting his ankle in training.

Arsenal’s club record 28-match unbeaten run ended on Wednesday with a 3-1 defeat at Sevilla in the Champions League, but the Gunners are still unbeaten in the Premier League.

Midfielder Cesc Fabregas, who has hit 10 goals this season, could miss his team’s match at Villa Park because of a hamstring problem. But midfielder Mathieu Flamini has recovered from a thigh injury and defender William Gallas and striker Emmanuel Adebayor could return after being rested at Sevilla.

Villa are sixth after winning four straight Premier League games for the first time in more than seven years.

Villa havn’t beaten Arsenal since 1998, but beat Chelsea 2-0 in September and are confident after a 4-0 win at Blackburn last time out.

Liverpool, the other unbeaten team, are in action tomorrow when they host Bolton, and Tottenham host Birmingham in the day’s other match.