Venue: Villa Park
Date: Saturday, 16 October
Kick-off: 1730 BST
At last, the drudgery that is the international break is over and it’s back to something we actually care about – the Premier League – and this evening’s game sees us take a trip to Villa Park. Not exactly a happy hunting ground for us and we go there with 6 enforced changes to our first eleven, so it’s not ideal.
Still, enough of the ready-made excuses because whilst we’ve enjoyed some decent form so far this season, Villa have been less consistent and we’re the one’s going into the game with a four point lead at the top of the table – so let’s hope we can keep it up.
MANAGERS’ VIEWS
Having beaten us the last time he faced us in 2004 with Liverpool, ahead of today’s game, Villa manager Gerard Houllier says “We will be up to the task. It will be a hard battle in midfield – we will have to be prepared and strong there. They have had the strongest start – six wins out of seven – and they have had some very impressive wins as well. We must keep in mind they beat our club 7-1 last season. But we will be ready.”
Meanwhile, Carlo Ancelotti, obviously mindful his first defeat at Chelsea came against today’s opponents and not particularly wanting a repeat, suggests “The motivation is to maintain this good gap. This is our aim, our motivation. When we arrive at a difficult moment, we still want to be at the top, as we were last year. We had difficult moments then but, when we did, we were still top because we’d built up that gap. It gives us leeway.”
SQUAD NEWS
On the injury front for Villa, Agbonlahor (groin), Delp (knee) and Andreas Weimann (ankle) are out, whilst Heskey (calf & shin) faces a late fitness test.
For Chelsea, it isn’t quite as good, with Carlo Ancelotti stating “Frank Lampard is not available, Drogba is not available, Sturridge is not available, Kalou is not available, Alex is not available, Benayoun is not available, Terry is available.”
TEAMS
VILLA (from): Friedel, L Young, Dunne, Collins, Cuellar, Warnock, Albrighton, Petrov, Reo-Coker, Downing, A Young, Heskey, Guzan, Clark, Ireland, Bannan, Carew, Delfouneso.
CHELSEA: Cech, Ferreira, Ivanovic, Terry, Cole, Ramires, Mikel, Essien, Malouda, Kakuta, Anelka.
Subs from: Mellis, Borini, Van Aanholt, McEachran, Bosingwa, Zhirkov, Turnbull, Hilario.
LAST SEASON
Aston Villa 2-1 Chelsea (October 17, 2009)
REFEREE
Lee Mason
PREDICTION
Ok, so only City have stopped us having a 100% record so far this season, as well as being the only side to stop us scoring but then again, Villa have lost just once to us in the last 11 at Villa Park and they’ve also lost just one of their last 12 games at home so we’re likely to get another tough time against them today. And with us already having six first team players sidelined through injury, given the fact that Villa have conceded more fouls (118) than any other Premier League club so far this season, this game could cost us more than points!
Blue is the colour
