Aston Villa continue their bid to avoid relegation as they welcome Chelsea to Villa Park, in the second part of a Super Sunday triple header.
Villa know that a win could move them closer towards safety whilst Chelsea can reduce the gap to third-placed Leicester down to three points with victory.
Team News
Embed from Getty ImagesFrederic Guilbert is a major doubt for Aston Villa as he continues to recover from a knee injury suffered during lockdown.
Bjorn Engels (Achilles) and Danny Drinkwater (fitness) are also ruled out of this match, whilst Tom Heaton and Wesley remain absent until next season with long-term knee injuries.
Chelsea will be without Jorginho as the Italian midfielder serves the last of a two match ban.
Andreas Christiansen is expected to be available after recovering from a broken finger, although Reece James (knock) is a doubt.
Marco van Ginkel could also be in contention as he looks to make a first competitive appearance, since suffering a serious knee injury in July 2018.
Stat Attack
- Villa are winless in their last five league meetings against Chelsea, scoring just twice and conceding 13 goals across those five matches.
- Chelsea have taken 13 points from their last six league trips to Villa Park (W4, D1, L1).
- Villa have conceded first in each of their last five matches against Chelsea.
- Coming into this weekend, no Premier League player has picked up more yellow cards this season than Chelsea’s Jorginho who has earned 10 yellow cards.
- Villa’s Jack Grealish has converted seven of his 55 shots this season into league goals.
Prediction
Villa should be looking to come into this game believing that they can get a win after producing a strong display in midweek, whereas Chelsea will probably be a bit rusty initially in their first game back post lockdown.
The first 15 minutes therefore surely have to be crucial for Villa because if they score first, this game could go either way but if Chelsea can quickly establish a foothold then this could be quite one-sided.
Frank Lampard however has a midfield headache with several in-form players looking for a start, so his selection will be interesting because wrong tactics could give Vilal a chance but Chelsea seems to like Villa Park so I am going for an away win.
Prediction: Aston Villa 0-2 Chelsea
Result: Aston Villa 1-2 Chelsea