Aston Villa v Chelsea - e-Chelsea Preview

Article by e-Chelsea Correspondent Robert Wake

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FA PREMIER LEAGUE – VILLA PARK,

SATURDAY 15TH MARCH 2014, 17:30 (GMT) LIVE ON SKY SPORTS

Summary

Chelsea travel to Villa Park leading the table by seven points from Liverpool and Arsenal, and by 9 points from Manchester City. Those numbers are rather skewed by the fact that Liverpool and Arsenal have one game in hand, while City have three in hand, and should they win them all, would head the table on goal difference. Despite Jose Mourinho’s protestations to the contrary, many, myself included would always prefer points in the bag to games in hand, and last week’s victory over Tottenham enabled Chelsea to metaphorically turn the screw on all their title rivals, whilst simultaneously taking a huge step toward securing a top four finish. Villa’s league position in mid-table disguises the fact that they are still only 6 points from the drop zone. In their last outing, Villa impressively saw off Norwich after the visitors took an early lead, with a four goal salvo inspired by Christian Benteke. Prior to that, Villa had failed to score in their previous three matches against Newcastle, Cardiff and West Ham respectively. As their league position would suggest, The Blues are in good form, having won the last three Premier League outings, and taking an impressive 36 points from 42 since a surprise 3-2 reverse at Stoke in December.

History

The Blues won the reverse fixture 2-1 back in August with an own goal by Antonio Luna and a Branislav Ivanovic header cancelling out Benteke’s strike for Villa. The corresponding game last season saw Frank Lampard net a brace to surpass Bobby Tambling’s all time goal’s record in another 2-1 victory. The Villains will want to erase the previous encounter from their memory, as Chelsea ran out emphatic 8-0 winners at Stamford Bridge in December 2012. Villa’s last victory over The Blues came at Stamford Bridge a year earlier with goals from Stephen Ireland, Stilian Petrov and Darren Bent helping to secure a 3-1 win.

Team News

Villa will need to make a change at left-back as Ryan Bertrand is ineligible to play against his parent club. Antonio Luna or Joe Bennett may deputise. Libor Kozak remains sidelined for the hosts due to a broken leg. Chelsea will be without both Ashley Cole and Fernando Torres, so Samuel Eto’o is likely to continue up front. Mourinho may rotate with one eye on the Champions League encounter with Galatasaray on Tuesday night, but is again likely to field a strong line-up.

Prediction

At this stage of the season, no game is straight forward for clubs contesting the title or fighting relegation. Both teams prefer to play on the counter, so expect a cagey encounter, with Chelsea’s extra quality giving them the edge.

Aston Villa 0 – 1 Chelsea

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