Chelsea are desperate for a win as they return to Stamford Bridge in the Premier League this afternoon. It’s been a tough start to the new Mauricio Pochettino era in west London, with poor results played out against the backdrop of another ongoing injury crisis. The goal-shy Blues sit 14th with just one win from their opening five games after following a shock home defeat by Nottingham Forest with a bore draw at Bournemouth last time out.
And they could find the going tough again today against a Villa team that tend to score plenty, occupying seventh spot in the early top-flight table after three wins including a stunning late show to see off Crystal Palace last weekend. Unai Emery’s side will be hurting after dropping their Europa Conference League opener in Warsaw on Thursday, going down 3-2 after making five changes that are all reversed here.
Villa won 2-0 on this ground back in April and will be targeting successive league triumphs over today’s opponents for the first time in 30 years, though Pochettino is boosted by the return of Moises Caicedo. Follow Chelsea vs Aston Villa live with our blog below, featuring analysis from Dom Smith at Stamford Bridge.
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Chelsea vs Aston Villa
Standard Sport’s Dom Smith at Stamford Bridge
Mauricio Pochettino has won his last four matches against Aston Villa as a manager, with all of those coming while he was Tottenham boss.
Few will have been as significant as this encounter, however. The level of pressure on any Chelsea manager is bound to be sky-high at the moment given the £1billion the club has spent on transfers since Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital bought the club last May.
Pochettino and Chelsea need a win. They’ve won just one of their opening five league fixtures this season.
Chelsea vs Aston Villa
Standard Sport’s Dom Smith is in position to offer his pre-match thoughts from Stamford Bridge….
Aston Villa reverse all five Warsaw changes
Unai Emery, meanwhile, reverts back to the same Aston Villa team that came back to defeat Crystal Palace with a stunning late show last weekend.
As expected, Matty Cash, Pau Torres, Douglas Luiz, Moussa Diaby and Ollie Watkins all return after being rotated in Warsaw on Thursday, with Clement Lenglet, Calum Chambers, Youri Tielemans, Leon Bailey and Jhon Duran all returning to the bench.
Jacob Ramsey is among the substitutes after recovering from his broken foot and he is joined by teenage midfielder Omari Kellyman, with no place for Alex Moreno as young goalkeeper Filip Marschall also drops out.
One Chelsea change as Moises Caicedo returns
So Moises Caicedo is fit to return to the Chelsea midfield today, replacing fellow summer signing Lesley Ugochukwu in the only change to the team that started the goalless draw against Bournemouth last weekend.
Armando Broja is on the bench after his nine-month injury lay-off, along with Marc Cucurella, who is back following an illness.
However, still no Noni Madueke in the matchday squad despite him having returned to training following a muscle issue picked up with the England Under-21s.
Two goalkeepers on the Chelsea bench again in Djordje Petrovic and Lucas Bergstrom, but youngsters Alfie Gilchrist, Alex Matos and Ronnie Stutter all drop out to make way for the returns of Caicedo, Cucurella and Broja.
Aston Villa lineup
Aston Villa XI: Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Torres, Digne, Kamara, Douglas Luiz, McGinn, Diaby, Zaniolo, Watkins
Subs: Tielemans, Chambers, Lenglet, Duran, Olsen, Bailey, Dendoncker, Ramsey, Kellyman
Chelsea lineup
Chelsea XI: Sanchez, Gusto, Disasi, Thiago Silva, Colwill, Gallagher, Caicedo, Sterling, Fernandez, Mudryk, Jackson
Subs: Cucurella, Ugochukwu, Broja, Palmer, Chilwell, Petrovic, Maatsen, Deivid Washington, Bergstrom
Lineups on the way
Official team news is imminent from Stamford Bridge – stay tuned!
Pochettino update on Caicedo and Chelsea injuries
As mentioned, Chelsea could be boosted by the returns of Moises Caicedo, Noni Madueke and Marc Cucurella today, plus the potential involvement of Armando Broja after that long lay-off.
Here’s what Pochettino had to say on that quartet at Friday’s pre-match press conference at Cobham, plus the latest on Benoit Badiashile’s setback and the imminent training returns of Reece James, former Villa starlet Carney Chukwuemeka and Trevoh Chalobah, who is expected to leave Stamford Bridge in January.
“Moi we need to assess tomorrow, he was training in an individual way, not with the team until today,” Pochettino said.
“We need to assess tomorrow and see for Sunday. Marc suffered a fever and is back when we restarted training. Noni was involved also during the week in training.
“Maybe we need one day more, maybe Armando Broja can be involved, maybe Sunday. Not sure, we need to assess him tomorrow. We need to recover players and it is important many players start be available to be involved again.
“Yeah [Badiashile had a setback] but it was in a different muscle but it was minor, it was small. He was training with Reece James. I think Reece and Chukwuemeka and also Chalobah are very close to start training with the team.”
The calm before the storm at Stamford Bridge…
Emery defends Aston Villa rotation after Warsaw upset
Unai Emery copped some flak for his costly changes in Warsaw on Thursday, which saw a debut for Barcelona loanee Clement Lenglet and starts for the likes of Calum Chambers, Youri Tielemans, Leon Bailey and Jhon Duran.
However, the Spaniard was unapologetic for rotating his team amid an early season fixture pile-up caused by their Europa Conference League qualifiers.
“I am using my experiences in Europe and playing a lot of matches during the week. We are building a team. We didn’t want to lose but it was a possibility,” Emery said.
“We need to build, to try to get performances from players who joined us in the last moment, like Clement Lenglet, and players who are not playing regularly but who will help us.
“They have to play. We do not only need 11, 12, 15 players, we will need 20, 22, 25 players.”
