Date: Sunday 26th
December 2021
Venue: Villa Park
Kick-off: 17:30 GMT
With seasons greetings and 70s singalongs
still ringing in our ears, it’s back to business today for our Boxing Day
fixture away to Aston Villa.
Like most clubs in the Premier League,
Villa have had a covid-break, so they’ll be nice and fresh for this evening’s
game, which must be nice for them. We wouldn’t know about that at Chelsea, of
course, so worst case scenario we’ll be fielding players who could well feel as
rough as a badger’s backside, or at best, whose boots have barely brushed a
training pitch in the last few days.
No doubt about it, Villa have
improved under Gerrard and prior to their break, had a win against Norwich.
They won’t have Gerrard with them this evening though, because managers are
also susceptible to positive covid tests it seems.
For Chelsea, its not been our
greatest spell of football lately, in fact, its been a grim sight at times but
we’ve had a silly amount of players out and we’ve had little sympathy and even
less common sense from the powers that be, so it is what it is. To come through
the last few games without defeat and with clean sheets from our last couple of
games is not to be sniffed at but we’ve dropped more points than we’ll have
wanted to and can’t afford to be dropping any more. Not ideal when you consider
our Boxing Day’s for the last couple of seasons.
MANAGER’S VIEWS
Going into
today’s game, Villa manager, Steven Gerrard, says “You always prepare for the best Chelsea team.
They’ve got a fixture tonight and I’m sure that team will look a lot different
to the weekend because I’ve listened to Thomas’ (Tuchel) last few interviews
and I think he’s going to protect and rest a few, which is understandable. We will always prepare for the best team, in
terms of the opponent. If for any reason it’s not a strong Chelsea team, we’ll
deal with that. What I would say is
they’ve got a world class squad littered with world class players, so I’m sure
if they’ve got enough players to carry the fixture out, we’re going to find a
really strong Chelsea team.”
Thomas Tuchel, meanwhile, says “It is a Premier League game at one of the toughest places
where you can play in Aston Villa. It is good news, don’t get me wrong but I am
not overexcited now because I know I need to check how they are. If I understood it correctly, we need a
negative test and we have negative tests for Romelu, Callum and Ben Chilwell.
Ben Chilwell will not be involved against Aston Villa. The other two will be on
the pitch tomorrow if they are again negative tomorrow. Then, we need to see,
they have been ill and have symptoms but we will see.”
SQUAD NEWS
For Aston
Villa, Marvelous Nakamba, Leon Bailey and Bertrand
Traore are all likely to miss out but they’ll have several players back and
rested.
For
Chelsea, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Kai Havertz (both covid) are likely to miss out
again, Romelu Lukaku and Callum Hudson-Odoi are both available. Andreas
Christensen (back) is back in contention but Hakim Ziyech (calf) is a doubt.
TEAMS (Covid tests
permitting)
ASTON
VILLA (Possible line-up): Martinez; Cash, Konsa, Mings, Targett; McGinn,
Luiz, Ramsey; Buendia, Watkins, Young
CHELSEA (Possible
line-up): Mendy; Chalobah, Christensen, Rudiger, James, Jorginho,
Kovacic, Alonso; Hudson-Odoi, Mount; Pulisic
CURRENT FORM (PL)
ASTON VILLA: WWLWLW
CHELSEA: DWLWDD
LAST SEASON
Aston Villa 2-1 Chelsea
(23rd May 2021)
OTHER STUFF
- Aston Villa won
this fixture last season.
- Aston Villa have
won one of the past nine Premier League meetings.
- Chelsea have won on
five of their past seven league visits to Villa Park.
- Aston Villa have taken
12 points in six games under Steven Gerrard.
- Aston Villa have
won three successive Boxing Day fixtures.
- Aston Villa have
lost 20 Premier League fixtures in 2021.
- Chelsea have dropped
4 points in their last two Premier League games.
- Chelsea have won
just twice in six Premier League games.
- Chelsea had dropped
seven points from winning positions in their past eight Premier League games.
PREDICTION
BBC Sport: Aston Villa 0-2 Chelsea
Sportsmole: Aston Villa 1-1 Chelsea