Chelsea face a tricky test as they travel to take on Aston Villa on Boxing Day.
Thomas Tuchel’s side have enjoyed a strong season so far but with COVID-19 having a severe impact on their squad it means that many in the first team are running on empty as the festive fixtures look to ramp up.
Steven Gerrard has done well since replacing Dean Smith as head coach and has guided Villa up to 10th spot in the Premier League.
Victory over Norwich City in their last game has meant that Villa are back on track and they’ll be hoping to make home advantage count against the London side.
Aston Villa v Chelsea: Date and time
The Premier League clash is set to take place on Sunday, December 26 at Villa Park, Birmingham.
Kick-off is set for 5.30pm UK time.
Chelsea could move level on points with Liverpool by securing a win.
Aston Villa v Chelsea: talkSPORT commentary
The clash at Villa Park is set to be broadcast exclusively live on talkSPORT on Saturday evening.
Gameday Exclusive coverage will begin at 5pm and will be presented by Hugh Woozencroft.
Commentary will come from Nigel Adderley and former England winger Trevor Sinclair.
To tune in to talkSPORT or talkSPORT 2, click HERE for the live stream.
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Aston Villa v Chelsea: Team news
Leon Bailey and Marvelous Nakamba are set to miss the clash for Steven Gerrard’s side.
Thomas Tuchel is expected to be without a large number of first team players due to COVID-19.
Romelu Lukaku, Timo Werner, Kai Havertz, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ruben Loftus-Cheek have all been affected while Andreas Christensen and Hakim Ziyech could miss out through injury.
Aston Villa v Chelsea: Match facts
- Aston Villa won this exact fixture 2-1 last season, last winning back-to-back home league games against Chelsea back in April 2004.
- Chelsea won the reverse fixture 3-0 earlier this season, and are looking to complete the Premier League double over Aston Villa for the seventh time – only Manchester United (15) and Manchester City (8) have done so against the Villans more often in the competition.
- This is the sixth time Aston Villa and Chelsea have met in a league match on Boxing Day (fourth in the Premier League), with Chelsea remaining unbeaten in the five games so far (W3 D2). The last such match came in the 2007-08 season, a 4-4 draw at Stamford Bridge.
- In Premier League history, there have been 38 red cards in games played on Boxing Day. 8% of these came in one match – Aston Villa’s 4-4 draw away to Chelsea in 2007-08, with Zat Knight being sent off for Villa, and Ricardo Carvalho and Ashley Cole seeing red for the Blues.
- Aston Villa have won their last three Boxing Day league games, their longest winning run on this day since a run of five between 1908 and 1913.
- Chelsea have lost their last two Boxing Day league games, going down 2-0 against Southampton in 2019-20 and 3-1 at Arsenal last term. Only once have the Blues ever lost three such games in a row, doing so between 1912 and 1914.
- Chelsea’s last two Premier League games have finished level, with the Blues last drawing three consecutive league games back in February 2012. Meanwhile, they’ve never gone three league games without a win so far under Thomas Tuchel.
- Chelsea have only failed to score in two of their 18 Premier League away games under Thomas Tuchel – a 0-0 draw with Leeds in March, and another 0-0 draw with Wolves in their last match.
- Aston Villa have only failed to score in one of their last 14 Premier League home games, and have found the net in each of their last nine at Villa Park since a 0-0 draw with Everton in May.
- None of Aston Villa’s last 14 Premier League games have ended level (W6 L8), with four of those victories coming in their six games under Steven Gerrard. It’s the Villans’ longest run without a draw in league football since a run of 16 between January and May 1998.
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