Villa to provide much sterner test than Hull for Chelsea

An Aston Villa supporting friend of mine joked that this game with Chelsea is a crucial six pointer in the title race, perhaps not but Villa fans can be forgiven for looking up rather than down this season. In Paul Lambert they have one of the bright young managerial talents and he is building a young and exciting side. The 3-1 opening game defeat of Arsenal at the Emirates was impressive though a tougher challenge awaits against Chelsea in a game that has been moved to Wednesday because of the European Super Cup, Bookmakers make Chelsea the 3/10 (GENERAL) favourties after an impressive opening performance that saw them beat Hull that was far easier than the 2-0 scoreline suggests. The win showcased the attacking talent that Mourinho has available and he could rotate all his players against Villa and still have an impressive looking team.

The head-to-head record between the sides suggest Chelsea should have no problems as Villa have won on just one of their last 11 visits to Stamford Bridge, losing seven of these. One of these defeats came last season in a painful 6-0 hammering. The win was during spell when the young Villa side had lost a lot of confidence which they should not be short of this season especially after that result at Arsenal. Villa can also take heart from the fact that Jose Mourinho has not managed a winning side against the Midlands team in his last four attempts.

You can back the visitors at a very generous 11/1 (BETVICTOR) while the draw is 19/4 (BETVICTOR). The best way to play this game though is on the Asian Handicap where Villa can be backed with a +1.25 start at 5/4 (bet365). This will pay out if Villa get the victory or the draw and as a half win if Villa lose the game by one goal. The game with Hull showed that Chelsea are prepared to take their foot off the gas when they think they have the game wrapped up. Lambert will also be keen to keep the scoreline much tighter with memories of that hammering likely to be still haunting. I think for Villa to get something from the game they need to grab at least one goal and I think they are capable of doing so. You can back them at 11/13 (GENERAL) to score over 0.5 and seeing as they have grabbed 14 in their last five games this looks generous. Chelsea did keep Hull quite but Villa have a much greater attacking threat than the Tigers.

I talked before about the rotation of players and this makes it hard when predicting a player to score for Chelsea. Fernando Torres has scored four in his last four against Villa though might give way to Ba or Lukaku up top. Frank Lampard is another who could be rested which will be a shame for him as he has scored 13 against Villa in the Premier League. Branislav Ivanovic meanwhile has has grabbed three against the Midlands side more than against any other Premier League side and is 8/1 (TOTESPORT/betfred) to score in this game.

The Villa team is expected to be a lot more settled and the two goal Christian Benteke is a generous 7/2 (TOTESPORT/betfred) chance to score at anytime. The player I like the look of though in this market is Gabriel Agbonlahor who is available at 5/1 (GENERAL). Agbonlahor came in for a lot of praise from his manager after his performance against Arsenal and it was he who won both the penalties at the Emirates when in scoring positions.

BEST OF THE BETS

GOLD: Aston Villa to score over 0.5 goals, 11/13 (GENERAL)
SILVER: Aston Villa +1.25 on Asian Handicap, 5/4 (BET35)
BRONZE: Gabriel Agbonlahor to score anytime v Chelsea, 5/1 (GENERAL)

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20/08/2013     © Frixo 2026