Aston Villa look to return to winning ways when welcoming Chelsea to Villa Park on Saturday afternoon, in the last of a run of three-consecutive home outings.
Unai Emery's side will be hoping to go one better than their previous two outings in their third game in B6 in the space of eight days. Last weekend's 1-1 draw with Ipswich Town was followed up in midweek with a point in an entertaining 2-2 draw with Premier League leaders Liverpool.
Avoiding defeat will ensure the Villans stretch their unbeaten run at Villa Park to 14 matches, with Emery's men looking for a fourth outing unbeaten in all competitions.
In order to do so, they will have to overcome a Chelsea side three places and four points ahead of them in the league table.
Enzo Maresca's high-scoring Blues have struggled since Christmas, however, winning just three of their last 10 outings and falling to five defeats. They enter Saturday's encounter on the back of consecutive losses to Brighton & Hove Albion, in the league last Friday, and the FA Cup the weekend before.
Stats
Aston Villa’s Marcus Rashford has scored four goals in eight home Premier League appearances against Chelsea, doing so for Manchester United in 2016/17 (one goal), 2019/20 (two) and 2022/23 (one).
Cole Palmer’s last Premier League assist for Chelsea was against Aston Villa in December for Enzo Fernández’s goal – since then, Palmer has created 33 chances for 12 different teammates without any of them being converted.
Since the start of the 2022/23 campaign, only Wolves’ Nélson Semedo (29) has received more Premier League yellow cards than Moisés Caicedo (28), with the Chelsea midfielder receiving a booking in three of his last four appearances.
In their 3-0 defeat away at Brighton last Friday, Chelsea failed to have a single shot on target in a Premier League match for the first time since September 2021 against Man City. It was also only the third time this season the Blues accumulated less than at least 1.00 xG, managing a seasonal low of 0.54.
Chelsea have scored just two goals in their last five Premier League away matches (D2 L3), having scored nine in their two away games before this run (5-1 vs Southampton, 4-3 vs Spurs). In these last five away games, the Blues have underperformed their expected goals by 4.8 (2 goals, 6.8 xG).
Aston Villa won 10 consecutive Premier League matches against London sides between April 2023 and February 2024 but since then have only won four out of 15 against sides from the capital (D6 L5).
Chelsea have lost four of their last eight Premier League matches (W2 D2), more than they had in their previous 32 games combined (W19 D10 L3).
Aston Villa have lost just one of their last 22 Premier League home games played on Saturdays (W16 D5), a 2-0 loss to Arsenal in August this season which was also a 5.30pm kick-off.
Chelsea have won 13 Premier League away games against Aston Villa, only winning more at Tottenham (16) and Southampton (15) in the competition’s history.
Aston Villa have won just two of their last 11 Premier League home games against Chelsea (D2 L7), beating them 1-0 in March 2014 and 2-1 in May 2021.
Aston Villa have won 15 points from losing positions in the Premier League this season, only Manchester City (17) and Liverpool (16) have recovered more.
The Last Meeting
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The last meeting between these two sides was one to forget for the Villans, as they fell to a 3-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge on the first day of December.
Unai Emery's side travelled to West London on a tricky run of form, and caught a confident Chelsea side, who who took the lead just seven minutes in through Nicolas Jackson before Enzo Fernández doubled their advantage nine minutes before the break.
Villa battled well in the second period in their search of a way back into the game, but it was the hosts who would make sure of the three points seven minutes from time, as Cole Palmer bent an unstoppable effort beyond Robin Olsen and into the top corner to send Unai Emery's side home empty handed.
Team News
Unai Emery revealed Ezri Konsa and Leon Bailey could return for his side, the pair having missed Villa's last two games through injury. They will face late fitness tests ahead of the encounter.
Ross Barkley, Pau Torres, Amadou Onana and Boubacar Kamara are all still sidelined with injuries of their own, while defender Axel Disasi is unable to face his parent club.
Enzo Maresca will be without Noni Madueke on Saturday, after the England winger was forced off after 21 minutes against Brighton.
He will join Benoit Badiashile, Wesley Fofana, Romeo Lavia, Marc Guiu and Nicolas Jackson on the sidelines, who all remain out.
Managers' Pre-Match Thoughts
"Tomorrow, Chelsea is really a very good test, collectively, individually, very good test. “Last year against Chelsea at home, in the FA Cup we were out, in the Premier League match we played more or less in February/March, we compete very well but we draw. They were always demanding (of) us a lot, always."
Unai Emery
"Aston Villa are a very good team. Since the new project with Emery, they are doing fantastic. The team are very good, they know clearly how they want to play - both on the ball and off the ball - and the manager is probably one of the best managers [in the league]."
Enzo Maresca
