Drogba is experiencing a bad time at club level having being reduced to a sub in recent matches and sometimes not even making the squad.
He is expected to be on the bench again tomorrow against free-falling Hull City at Stamford Bridge.
New boy Richardo Quaresma will make his Chelsea debut on the right wing with Florent Malouda believed to have kept his place on the left.
Michael Ballack Mikel and Frank Lampard will fill up the midfield roles. Up front will, once again, be Nicolas Anelka.
The back four are expected to be Jose Bosingwa, John "Lucy" Terry, Alex and Ashley Cole with Hilario between the sticks.
Salomon Kalou will be the fall guy this week.
Petr Cech's absence - he took a knock at Anfield last week - didn't we all, will see Hilario take the goalkeeper's gloves onto the pitch.
Of course Carlo Cudicini would have played had he decided to stay at SW6, but the Portuguese Hilario will no doubt do a sterling job.