Journalists from national and local media picked Steven Gerrard’s brains ahead of Aston Villa's Boxing Day game against Chelsea.
Speaking via virtual press conference on Wednesday morning, the club's head coach had plenty of topics to discuss.
Here’s what he had to say…
On the club’s COVID situation…
“It’s changing every hour; it’s changing on a daily basis. It’s very unpredictable. We’re testing every day.
“I don’t really know what position we’re going to be in come the game. At the moment, we’ve got enough to play.
“I expect the game to go ahead – I hope the game goes ahead. It’s a game we’re very much looking forward to. In terms of the COVID picture and the situation here at Villa, it’s changing on a daily basis so it’s very unpredictable and hard to call.”
On preparing for Chelsea…
“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.”
On Villa’s recent form…
“Once I started talking to Villa, the very first thing I did was look at the fixtures in the short-term. There were a lot of fixtures to be excited about, and I think the players have done extremely well in terms of the points return.
“I had confidence and belief that we could come in and have the impact that we’ve had. The players deserve the credit for going and carrying those performances out.
“We were close to taking a point out of the City game as well. The Liverpool game was slightly different – they dominated for large parts, but I think we gave a good account of ourselves and made them extremely nervous in the latter stages of that game.
“The players should be confident, they should have loads of belief heading into a really busy schedule. All the players need to be ready and hopefully we can continue to post some positive results for our supporters.”
