Our live stream ahead of Mondays Premier League match, Chelsea vs Aston Villa is now up and running, kicking off at 17.30 GMT
You can keep an eye on the commentary as it happens below, but first, we take a preview into the fixture, lineups, predictions and much more…
Chelsea come into the game having lost to struggling rivals Arsenal 3-1 on boxing day.
The defeat in North London was Chelsea’s third loss in four matches following previous away defeats to Everton and Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Chelsea travelled to the Emirates Stadium looking to boost their title credentials but were outclassed in every department as a youthful Arsenal ended their seven-game wait for a Premier League victory.
Frank Lampard’s men missed the chance to leapfrog themselves into second and will be desperate to bounce back as soon as possible.
Villa, however, head to Stamford Bridge following a resounding 3-0 win over Crystal Palace, with Dean Smith’s side playing the second 45 with 10 men on Boxing Day.
Aston Villa headed into their game with Crystal Palace having eased past Sam Allardyce’s West Bromwich Albion before the festive fixtures, with Dean Smith’s side hoping to stretch their unbeaten run to four matches on Boxing Day.
A win against Chelsea could see the Villains move up to third in the league, four points off top with a game in hand on the teams around them.
Chelsea and Villa last met in June, with Lampards men winning 2-1 at Villa Park…
PRESS CONFERENCE:
Frank Lampard
Changes for Villa?
“There will be some changes,”
“I knew that anyway and I am certainly not going to bang the drum about the quick turnaround [between the games] after our performance at Arsenal, it is not the important point, but playing two days later we have to make changes anyway and some of those will now happen as well because of how that game went.”
“People have to come in and inject the energy and personality that is in our performances normally. The reason we went so many games unbeaten was because of that, and we have come off that, and we have to get back on it quickly.”
“Some of it is because of where we maybe are as a squad. People wanted to talk us up as title contenders, I never accepted that was the case because we are not there, that takes time to build.”
“Games like the Arsenal one are certainly ones we have to learn a very big lesson from – everybody, myself included – because when I see that in the first half I don’t like it. I don’t like it so it can’t happen.”
Difficult times...
‘I don’t think this season was going to be plain sailing and winning every week. We got confident and we got into a position where we were not losing games and we were winning a lot of games.”
“Things are pretty easy at that point. When you lose a couple of games it becomes much tougher and the only way out of it is to fight and to work hard.”
“That is what I will be instilling in the players, that idea, because that is the only way you get out of what is a difficult little period for us.”
“But at the same time, we are still close to the top end of the table and I feel there is a big improvement coming because of the youth in our team, and the freshness because of players who have come in, so I expect that but we have to work for it.”
Change of formation?
“When we changed the system before it certainly helped us get an uplift because we weren’t feeling as fluid as we like to be, and it is my job then to look at it and feel if we can be better.”
“I think it helped but the players are the ones. As much as the players weren’t good in the first half against Arsenal, they were very good for a long period and were improving in that unbeaten run so it is a case of staying strong mentally and just bringing back the good basics to get you on that run, because we have a talented squad.”
“There is a lot of uplift in it but you have to keep hitting the basics day in day out. The few defeats we have had recently are because we dropped off a little and it is my job to pick it back up.”
Dean Smith
On utilising his squad over the hectic festive period…
“We’ll have a look at the players, assess it, speak to them, chat with the performance team and see if there’s any players who need rotating.”
“We feel our squad is deep enough, and that was proven with the Burnley game when we had four players making their first starts of the season. So we’ve got players capable of doing that.”
“It’s not good that we’ve got Tyrone missing because it means we’ve got centre-halves who will have to play two games on the spin.”
“But, all in all, I think the recovery the players have been doing and the work they’ve been doing, I’m not sure many of them would want to come out of the team at the moment.”
“And that’s another important part of it as well.”
On Villa’s impressive defensive record…
“I think they take great pride in it.”
“There’s a growing maturity within the squad, I like the fact Jack and Emi are arguing in the last minute (against Crystal Palace) when he’s got a goal-kick.”
“Jack feels he should be kicking it one side and Emi feels he should be kicking it the other.”
“But that’s what I want from the players, I want the team spirit to want to keep clean sheets and have a great pride in that.”
“And I certainly think we’ve got that balance at the moment, which is good.”
On facing Chelsea…
“Chelsea have got very, very good players, we’ve seen with their acquisitions in the summer that we need to be at our best, we know what we’re coming up against.
“We’re coming up against a top-four team in the Premier League.
“We’ve got to be ready for that and ready to compete.
“If we see less of the ball then we’ve got to make sure we’re very good without the ball but when we win it back we’ve got to go and use it very well.”
On Villa’s ambitions this season…
“They (our ambitions) haven’t changed. Our ambitions at the start of the season were to go and be competitive in every game we play.
“Nobody was happy with finishing 17th last season and we wanted to improve on that.
“And we felt the players we brought in would certainly help improve us.
“We’re doing that at the moment, we’re progressing as a football club and we need to make sure we maintain that.”
FORM:
Chelsea Premier League form: DWLLWL
Chelsea form (all competitions): WDLLWL
Aston Villa Premier League form: LLWDWW
LINEUPS:
Chelsea possible starting lineup:
Mendy; Azpilicueta, Zouma, Silva, Emerson; Kante, Jorginho, Havertz; Pulisic, Giroud, Hudson-Odoi
Aston Villa possible starting lineup:
Martinez; Cash, Konsa, Hause, Taylor; Luiz, Nakamba; Traore, Grealish, El Ghazi; Watkins
THATSAGOAL TIP:
Olivier Giroud Anytime Goalscorer – 6/5 with FanTeam
Three losses in four for Chelsea marks a tough festive period for the Blues. Chelsea have lost each of their last three away games but are unbeaten at home since an early-season loss to Liverpool in which Andreas Christensen saw red.
Olivier Giroud has scored twice in December in the league as well as his four-heroics in the Champions League. Having started on the bench on Boxing Day, Giroud is likely to get the nod upfront considering the short turnaround.
Despite racking up an impressive clean sheets tally, Aston Villa have conceded two or more goals on five occasions this season.
Time to take a look at our Chelsea vs Aston Villa live match stream as it happens…
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