Chelsea beat Everton 4-0 in the Premier League last weekend meaning they still manage to hold onto their top-four spot. And next up they travel to Villa Park to take on Aston Villa.
The Blues have now picked up two wins in their last three league matches and given that Villa have lost four of their last five Premier League matches, this should be an easy three-pointer for Frank Lampard’s side.
But going into this match, Chelsea have a number of injury concerns mostly in and around the midfield area and this could be a cause of concern for the manager since next week they take on Bayern Munich in the Champions League.
Chelsea team news vs Aston Villa:
Kepa Arrizabalaga seems to have won back the confidence of his manager and the Spaniard will hopefully keep his place in the starting line-up on Saturday.
Rudiger and Zouma played in central defence vs Everton and the pair should take the field once again this weekend but Azpilicueta could make way for youngster Reece James in the right-back role.
Marcos Alonso has been wonderful during the past couple of weeks and the Spaniard is expected to keep his place.
Billy Gilmour has received enormous praise for his performances vs Everton and Liverpool and there’s a big chance that the manager might hand the youngster one more start on Saturday vs Villa.
While Jorginho is back from suspension but the manager will want to keep the Italian fresh for the Bayern Munich game.
Mason Mount suffered a slight knock during the Everton win and since then there have been fears that the attacking midfielder might not be a 100% for the Villa game. But Mount has made it clear that the knock isn’t serious and he will be fine.
The midfielder said: “I took a little knock, a knee in the back of my knee. It was precautionary to see how it was. But now, I feel fine and hopefully, in the next couple of days I will get treatment in and it will be fine.”
But apart from this, it’s mostly bad news for the Blues boss since N’Golo Kante and Mateo Kovacic are both ruled out for this weekend’s game.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek has returned from injury but Lampard has made it clear that the midfielder is lacking match-fitness and will take some more time to make a comeback.
Christian Pulisic is still not a 100 per cent while Callum Hudson-Odoi has suffered a setback during his rehabilitation process meaning both these forwards will miss the trip to Villa Park.
Olivier Giroud will once again get the opportunity to start upfront since Tammy Abraham is on the sidelines with an ankle injury and right now, there’s no return date for the English striker.
