Aston Villa vs Chelsea LIVE: Team news and line ups confirmed, Premier League latest

ASTON VILLA vs CHELSEA – LIVE!

• This is the 50th Premier League fixture between the clubs. Chelsea lead by 25 wins to Aston Villa’s 12, with 12 draws

• Chelsea haven’t won any of their four Premier League away games in 2020

• Frank Lampard only won on four of his 16 Premier League visits to Villa Park as a player

• Aston Villa’s midweek draw against Sheffield United ended a run of four straight league defeats

• Dean Smith’s side have taken just two points from their last 21 games against the established top-six Premier League sides

Chelsea XI: Kepa, Azpilicueta, Christensen, Rudiger, Alonso, Kante, Loftus-Cheek, Kovacic, Willian, Giroud, Mount.

Subs: Caballero, James, Zouma, Emerson, Gilmour, Barkley, Pulisic, Pedro, Abraham.

Aston Villa XI: Nyland, Hause, Konsa, Mings, Targett, Luiz, McGinn, Hourihane, El Ghazi, Davis, Grealish.

Subs: Reina, Taylor, Elmohamady, Nakamba, Vassilev, Jota, Trezeguet, Baston, Samatta.

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Well I never…

I don’t think anybody saw this coming. Newcastle are now beating Sheffield United 3-0 at St James’ Park. And if that’s not stunning enough – Joelinton has actually scored a goal! The £40m signing gets his second Premier League goal in 30 appearances.

D’ya know who the other was against? *Pauses for dramatic effect* It was Tottenham…

Twitter round-up

Chester: Proper intrigued to see N’Golo Kante in a pivot. One thing I rate about Frank Lampard is he seems to be challenging his own assumptions about whether Tammy Abraham should be first-choice and Kante should never play anchor. Agree or disagree I like having an open manager.

Cameron: He really doesn’t learn does he? El Ghazi has not been pulling his weight even though he claims he’s fitter, and Dean Smith is still reluctant to play 2 up top.

Henrule: Mason Mount as a number 10. You can see the love both the club and Frank Lampard is showing on him. That’s a strong indication he will start every game. He might even be given the number 10 shirt next season. Yes number 10 jersey for Mount. I said it first.

Alan: Chelsea have gone with experience today. Let’s hope it proves to be the correct decision. No doubt all five substitutes will be used.

You certainly did, Henrule. And that’s mainly because nobody else has bothered discussing it.

Ritchie makes it two

Newcastle look to have wrapped up the points against 10-man Sheffield United at St James’ Park. Matt Ritchie smacked in the second just after Allan Saint-Maximin opened the scoring to make it 2-0 to Steve Bruce’s side.

The Blades will want to forget this week. They were on the receiving end of a terrible decision against Aston Villa on Wednesday and today’s second booking for John Egan was ridiculous.

Team news – Chelsea

And for the Blues, Frank Lampard has made four changes from the team who knocked four past Everton all those weeks ago.

Olivier Giroud is preferred to Tammy Abraham in attack. Perhaps one last hurrah before Timo Werner arrives to assume his central role next season.

There’s a return for Ruben Loftus-Cheek, who makes his firsts tart since May 2019 after suffering that horrendous achilles injury. He’s in for Billy Gilmour.

Midfielder N’Golo Kante is also back in the starting XI to replace Ross Barkley. Mateo Kovacic is back too while Andreas Christensen is preferred to Kurt Zouma.

Team news – Aston Villa

Nice and simple for Aston Villa boss Dean Smith this afternoon. He’s named an unchanged side from Wednesday’s rather fortunate goalless draw with Sheffield United.

That means Jack Grealish, John McGinn and 22-year-old striker Keinan Davis all start.

Starting XI…

And the line-ups arrive. Frank Lampard starts Olivier Giroud in attack with Tammy Abraham on the bench. John McGinn in the starting XI for the hosts.

Chelsea XI: Kepa, Azpilicueta, Christensen, Rudiger, Alonso, Kante, Loftus-Cheek, Kovacic, Willian, Giroud, Mount.

Subs: Caballero, James, Zouma, Emerson, Gilmour, Barkley, Pulisic, Pedro, Abraham.

Aston Villa XI: Nyland, Hause, Konsa, Mings, Targett, Luiz, McGinn, Hourihane, El Ghazi, Davis, Grealish.

Subs: Reina, Taylor, Elmohamady, Nakamba, Vassilev, Jota, Trezeguet, Baston, Samatta.

The latest

It’s still goalless between Newcastle and Sheffield United at St James’ Park. What else did you expect?

There’s been relatively few chances to speak of but £40m Joelinton, whose agent must be laughing his head off, missed a golden opportunity in the first half.

Oh, and John Egan has just been sent off for bringing down Joelinton. I brought him into my Fantasy Football team this week – so I’ll take full responsibility for that.

Is there anything more pointless than being sent off for preventing Joelinton getting a run on goal?

Afternoon…

Hello everyone and welcome to our LIVE coverage of Aston Villa vs Chelsea.

We’re being treated to a triple-header today as the Premier League goes into overdrive to complete the season.

The fixture at Villa Park is sandwiched between Sheffield United’s trip to Newcastle and the Merseyside derby between Everton and Liverpool.

That’ll be a quiet night in at the library – not! Oh right… there’s no fans in the stadium… So maybe it will.

Anyway, we have a veritable feast of football on the menu so let’s get cracking. Team news and line-ups on the way…