PreviewÂ
With the International break finally over Chelsea welcome Aston Villa to Stamford Bridge as they look to regain their title winning form, The Blues have struggled this season as they already have 2 Premier League home defeats; more than the whole of last season.
Mourinho is clearly unhappy with the squad as his players have failed to perform in the same way as last season and now he has the tough task of recovering our season.
Aston Villa are currently sitting below Chelsea in the table in 18th as they haven’t managed to win a Premier League game since the first day of the season, away at Bournemouth. But that doesn’t mean Chelsea will ease to victory. The Villans have a very strong target man up front in the name of Rudy Gestede, who could cause havoc to Chelsea’s back line.
Aston Villa haven’t got the best of records against us either. Chelsea thrashed Aston Villa 8-0 in 2012; This added to their poor form means they will certainly travel to Stamford Bridge low on confidence.
Match Details
Saturday, 17th October, kick off at 3:00pm (UK Time) at Stamford Bridge.
Recent Form and Previous Meetings
Chelsea head into the game on poor form without a win in our last 3 games in all competitions. In our last 5 games we have only won 2 (Arsenal and Walsall), drawn 1 (Newcastle) and lost 2 (Porto and Southampton).
However Aston Villa head into the game in even worse form having won just once (Birmingham) in their last 5 games and losing the reaming 4 (Leicester, West Brom, Liverpool and Stoke).
In our last 10 meetings vs Aston Villa, both home and away, Chelsea have won 6, there has been 2 draws, meaning 2 wins for Aston Villa. This has seen Chelsea score an average of 2.5 goals a game compared to Aston Villa’s 1.2.
In our last 10 games at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea have won 6, there has been 3 draws and just 1 win for Aston Villa. Amongst these games Chelsea have won both 7-1 and 8-0.
Team News
Branislav Ivanovic is very likely to miss the game due to a hamstring injury which he picked up playing for Serbia, meaning he missed their last European qualifier as he had to travel back to London for treatment. Numerous reports are suggesting he will be out for up to 3 weeks. This could mean that Azpilicueta could be moved to his natural right back position with Baba Rahman coming in at left back and making his Premier League debut. However there have also been reports suggesting Mourinho will opt with Kurt Zouma at right back to replace Branislav Ivanovic.
Mourinho also promised after our game with Southampton that Ruben Loftus-Cheek will be featuring more with both Cesc Fabregas and Nemanja Matic struggling to hit the form of last season. Ruben Loftus-Cheek had a great game for England U21s during the international break vs Kazakhstan, where he bagged his first goal on the international stage at that level. He was deployed in a different role than he’s been playing at with Chelsea, he took the position of CAM. Ramires has also looked great prior to the international break which could mean he will join Loftus-Cheek in central midfield a lot more frequently.
Diego Costa will also return from suspension and he’s expected to go straight back into the starting 11.
Thibaut Courtois said midweek that he’s working hard and will hopefully be back playing for us at the start of December.
Aston Villa have a couple of injury problems of their own with centre backs Ciaran Clark and Jores Okore both being ruled out. Gabriel Agbonlahor and Adama Traore are both doubts.
Your Predictions
https://twitter.com/gregrienzi/status/654688149520564224
@CFCNewsApp 3-1 Chealsea
— ShinzÅâš¡ (@Mavi084) October 15, 2015
@CFCNewsApp Chelsea 3 – 0 Aston Villa. I trust!
— Obafemi DeLight (@ghedduh) October 15, 2015
