Chelsea Look To Cement Unbeaten Record Against Villa

Premier League

Football
Published: 26/09/2014

League leaders Chelsea look to continue their defence of their unbeaten record this season with a home win over third-placed Aston Villa tomorrow (27th September). Paul Lambert`s Villa, however, will hope to bounce back after their own run of games without a loss came to a thudding end at the hands of Arsenal. The Gunners netted three times in the space of four minutes in the first half to give the West Midlands side too much to do. Having only scored four in four games prior to their match against Arsenal, it would have been unthinkable for the Villains to overturn such a deficit. Unlike tomorrow`s opponents, having been knocked out of the Capital One Cup in the second round meant that Lambert`s side were without a mid-week game, giving them a freshness that some of the Blues` first-teamers cannot claim to have.

Chelsea had to wait until the 55th minute to seal their win over Championship club Bolton Wanderers on Wednesday. Debutant Kurt Zouma put the Stamford Bridge side ahead in front of their home crowd, scoring with a powerful strike after the Whites made hard work of clearing a corner ball. Jose Mourinho`s men had the one-goal advantage for all of six minutes before they were pegged back by a Matt Mills header, though the second half saw Oscar reclaim the lead for Chelsea, finding the back of the net after being teed up by Loic Remy`s blocked shot. This result means that the Central London club are unbeaten in all competitions in face League 2 Shrewsbury in the second round.

The bookmakers` expect this run to continue, 1/4 (Betvictor, william hill) being the best price that can be currently picked up. It`s 6/1 (Numerous) for those of you who fancy the game ending in a tie whilst 16/1 (betfair, Spreadex) says that Villa will make a full recovery from their Arsenal education and win away for the third time in this campaign.

This task has become a little easier thanks to the alleviation of the squad`s much spoken of sickness bug. Nathan Baker, Darren Bent, Andreas Weimann and Ashley Westwood have all recovered from their illnesses and are set to return to the squad in some capacity. Fabian Delph, who was also struggling with the virus is also fit for selection. Paul Lambert took the drastic decision to quarantine his training ground after the defeat at Arsenal in order to try and avoid the sickness spreading to any of his other first-team players. He told the BBC that his staff were also affected by the mystery bug.

`I don`t know what kind of virus it is but it is certainly doing the rounds at the training ground so we will clear that place for a couple of days.

`Hopefully in a few days it will be fine.`

Villa are still without long-term absentees Christian Benteke (Achilles) and Ron Vlaar (calf), though their returns are expected to be imminent.

Seven-goal sensation Diego Costa is back in the Chelsea line-up after being rested for their match against Bolton. The Spaniard is being used sparingly by Mourinho as he tries to overcome a hamstring injury suffered whilst on international duty against France. The 25-year-old is 4/5 (Betbright) to boost his goal tally by one and 4/1 with betfair to grab a brace. The optimists can find a price of 14/1 (betfred, Totesport) on Costa bagging a hat-trick on his return.

The Blues, however, will miss Ramires who is sidelined with a groin injury. His manager told a press conference that the attacking midfielder will need the international break (the week commencing 6th October) to aid his recovery. John Mikel Obi, Oscar and Andre Schurrle could all start as his replacement.

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Any odds displayed within this article were correct at the time of publishing (26/09/2014) but are subject to change.

26/09/2014     © Frixo 2024

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