New Chelsea signing Gary Cahill will have to wait for his debut for the Stamford Bridge club after failing to make the squad for the trip to Norwich City on Saturday.
The England international signed for a fee understood to be around £7 million, but his new manager has not selected him, insisting he is not ready after just three days of training in the past week, but the former Aston Villa man could be ready for the trip to QPR in a week.
Speaking to Sky Sports before the match, Andre Villas-Boas said: “There’s a team dynamic to get into, he’s only had three days training.
“It’s a process that takes time, I think one more week and Gary will be fully into the team’s principles.
“We chose Ivanovic because he offers more versatility, he offers a right-back solution, and he’s had more time with the team, so if he’s called up he understands more of the principles we have.
“Not that Gary hasn’t made a quick assimilation of that, because he has, but today we’ve gone with this.”
Villas-Boas’ side have travelled to Carrow Road and made just the one change from the 1-0 win over Sunderland as young Spanish midfielder, Oriol Romeu, drops out of the line-up for Daniel Sturridge.
Fernando Torres continues in his role as the focal point in attack after an impressive performance against the Black Cats, but he will hoping to improve on his poor record of just two league goals in 16 appearances this season.
Norwich boss Paul Lambert has also made very few changes, swapping two players from the win at West Brom as Canadian striker Simeon Jackson drops to the bench in favour of Grant Holt, and Wes Hoolahan is replaced in the centre of midfield by David Fox.
The result when these two met earlier in the season saw newly-promoted Norwich fall to a 3-1 loss at Stamford Bridge, while the Blues won by the same scoreline the last time they visited Carrow Road, back in March 2005.
Norwich: Ruddy; Martin, Ayala, Whitbread, Naughton; Pilkington, Johnson, Fox, Surman; Morison, Holt
Subs: Steer, Drury, Crofts, Jackson, Hoolahan, Bennett, Wilbraham
Chelsea: Cech; Bosingwa, Luiz, Terry, Cole; Ramires, Meireles, Lampard; Sturridge, Torres, Mata
Subs: Turnbull, Ivanovic, Essien, Romeu, Malouda, Lukaku, Bertrand