Chelsea welcome Aston Villa to Stamford Bridge in a huge Bank Holiday Monday clash in the Premier League.
Should Leicester fail to beat Crystal Palace in mid-afternoon, victory could see Chelsea leapfrog Villa up into third whereas the Villains themselves could climb to third with a win.
Team News
Chelsea have no fresh injury concerns to report after their 3-1 Boxing Day defeat at Arsenal, as Hakim Ziyech nears a return from a hamstring injury and could feature here if he passes a fitness test.
Villa will be without Tyrone Mings who was sent off in their Boxing Day victory over Crystal Palace, with the England defender serving a one match ban.
Ross Barkley is ineligible to face his parent club and joins Wesley (knee) and Trezeguet (hamstring) on sidelines.
Stat Attack
- Chelsea have won each of their last six matches against Aston Villa (W6).
- Villa have taken just four points from their last seven trips to Stamford Bridge (W1, D1, L5).
- Frank Lampard’s Blues won both meetings against Villa last season by 2-1 results.
- Four of Chelsea’s ten goals in their last three home league matches have come from defenders in total, compared to individual midfield and attack players.
- Anwar El Ghazi has scored three goals in Villa’s last two away matches.
Prediction
Chelsea simply have to improve because they’re currently in a rut of one win in their last five matches across all competitions which isn’t ideal at this key stage of the season, especially given how shambolic they were defensively at Arsenal on Boxing Day and never got going until three goals down.
Villa meanwhile were the complete opposite in their win over Crystal Palace because although they had to do a lot of defending, they had an energy around them because their attacking was aggressively sharp with a real sense of creativity even when reduced to ten men.
Now if Villa turn up with that performance and Chelsea aren’t mentally at the races, this will be a tough encounter because I can see Villa really causing trouble for Chelsea’s defence with their attacking quality, with the Blues snatching a draw if raise their game quicker than they did at Arsenal.
Prediction: Chelsea 1-2 Aston Villa
Result: Chelsea 1-1 Aston Villa
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