Aston Villa vs Chelsea Preview and Betting Tip
Aston Villa vs Chelsea Preview
We were exceedingly unlucky with our 5/1 bet on Spurs to beat Liverpool. It finished 2-2 but Tottenham missed countless chances and it was a match they should have won. On Boxing Day, the match of the day is Aston Villa vs Chelsea. The hosts are rank outsiders at 17/4, the draw is 3/1 on the machine and out of form Chelsea are chalked up at 4/6. Will Stevie G’s side finally crack the code against a top team? Or can Tuchel coax Chelsea back to winning form? Check out our preview and betting tip below.
Aston Villa
It is still early days for Steven Gerrard at Villa Park, but the signs so far have been positive. The Villains are now a harder team to beat and they have won 4 from 6 under Gerrard. Their only defeats were narrow ones against the top two, 1-2 at home vs City and 0-1 away to Liverpool. They were dominated for prolonged periods by both those teams but they had sufficient chances to get at least a draw against Man City and against Liverpool it was a silly penalty that cost them.
Villa have a fair few absentees to deal with on Sunday. Nakamba, Bailey and Traore are definitely out and they are missing El Ghazi and Sanson with Covid. They’ll at least be welcoming Buendia back into the fold and Ashley Young should be available for selection too. Gerrard’s bench may not be the strongest but he will be able to name a pretty decent starting eleven.
McGinn and especially Douglas Luiz have impressed in the engine room in recent weeks. Ollie Watkins leads Villa’s scoring charts with five goals and he’ll be their main outlet against Chelsea. The question is, how much help will he have up top? Against Liverpool, Gerrard was conservative and basically played a 4-5-1 formation with three sitting midfielders and Young and Ramsey out wide. He could do the same again but if he shows some ambition and starts Ings up top with Buendia and Watkins out wide, Villa are more than capable of causing Chelsea all sorts of problems.
Chelsea
Our ante-post bet on Chelsea to win the title is on shaky ground. The Blues have faltered badly in the last three weeks and they are almost already at the stage where they cannot afford to drop any more points. City have streaked six points ahead of them now after Chelsea’s run of just 1 win from their last 4 EPL matches (3 wins in last 8). They were held to a 0-0 draw at Wolves on their last road trip and a few days prior to that they were beaten 3-2 by West Ham.
The cause of Chelsea’s drop off in form has been the absence of Kovacic and especially Kante. Jorginho is a much better player when he is in alongside one of those two. Loftus Cheek, James and Chalobah have attempted to fill the void but they just aren’t in the same class as they players they were replacing. Those two are back fit now but Tuchel still has absentees to deal with. Lukaku, Werner, Havertz, Chilwell and Hudson Odoi all tested positive for Covid and Loftus-Cheek and Ziyech are injury doubts.
Tuchel is in a similar situation to plenty of other managers in the EPL right now. He should be able to name a strong starting eleven but he’ll have very few experienced options on the bench. In their last EPL match vs Wolves, Chelsea only had six subs and two of those were ‘keepers. Tuchel will be hoping that a 2-0 EFL Cup win in midweek will have boosted belief in his squad but this will be a tougher test and in their current form, it is hard to be confident that they’ll be up to the task.
Aston Villa vs Chelsea Possible Lineups
Aston Villa: Martinez, Cash, Mings, Konsa, Targett, McGinn, Luiz, Ramsey, Watkins, Buendia, Ings.
Chelsea: Mendy, Alonso, Rudiger, Silva, Azpilicueta, James, Jorginho, Kante, Kovacic, Mount, Pulisic.
Aston Villa vs Chelsea Betting Tip
Given the current form of the visitors, there is only one bet that makes sense here. Aston Villa are as big as 17/4 with a couple of firms and that looks a massive price. Chelsea’s form has fallen off a cliff and they are lucky they aren’t on a four-game winless run after their dramatic late winner vs Leeds.
Villa, on the other hand, have been ticking along nicely under Gerrard and this is a shot to nothing for them. Nobody expects them to win, but they’ll know that Chelsea’s confidence is frail right now and if they can take the lead in the game, it will be panic stations for The Blues. At odds of 17/4, Aston Villa to win is the recommended bet.
