Last season we split 6 points, taking 3 a piece with Chelsea also having 2 red cards in our home win; England man of the hour Fabien Delph getting the winner. It is now the chosen ones second season of his returning reign and what a difference a summer, and £91.3 million makes.
| P | W | D | L | GD | PTS | ||
| 1 | Chelsea | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | +9 | 13 |
| 3 | Villa | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 10 |
It is clear to see that Chelsea are not lacking goals this season with a huge 16 being scored in 5 games, that is 3.2 goals per game; 7 of which are from Diego Costa, the current Premier League top scorer (closely followed by Leicester’s Ulloa with 5).
Our games do not tend to lack goals. The past 6 meetings alone have seen 25 being scored collectively and a ratio seeing Chelsea win 67% compared to our 33%. There wasn’t any draws during that period. Now onto the present.
This could well be the season Chelsea take the title, having easily brushed away the majority who have faced them so far. But they are not an invincible club and have so far relied heavily upon the scoring abilities of Costa.
Ivanovic
Chelsea are a great team, there is no denying it, they pull together as a team and most importantly they can score, and not just the strikers. Branislav Ivanovic is no stranger to scoring for the blues having already scored 2 goals this season and averaging 2.2 shots per game, making him second top scorer for Chelsea. He has a habit of finding space and converting from free kicks and corners meaning that he will give trouble the defence. It’s not just the his aerial abilities, he also has a keen eye for an accurate ball which sees him with a 79.8% completion rate this season and an average of 44.6 passes per game. He needs to be stopped, and will offer some decent battles in midfield as he likes to press forward, spending a lot of time near the half way line. Delph and Richardson (who I hope gets dropped for Grealish) will have a hard time here and will need to be at there best in order to stop the passes through to Cesc Fàbregas and runs along this wing.
Fàbregas
Outside of Costa, Cesc has easily been Chelsea’s top player and having only scored in the Champions league so far this season, he is due a premier league goal and will no doubt come looking for it. The ball will continue to be fed through to Fàbregas and he will attempt to set up, or convert himself; this isn’t to be taken lightly. The Spaniard has already assisted 6 of the goals, and I have no doubt that he will play a key role for Chelsea this weekend, but Lambert will already know this and I can expect to see him man marked heavily in order to squash his creativity. He has been avergagin 72 passes a game with a competition of 89.4%. However, he is not a completely all rounded player though, what he offers in offence and passing, he lacks in defensive play; pressured enough, we can see him giving away fouls. This should be taken advantage of with players like Delph taking him on.
Costa
I feel that Costa’s legacy speaks for itself, he is dangerous and accurate. He can pass the ball well, he can read the game and he can score. I don’t need to go into too much depth on his abilities as it speaks for itself, so instead, lets look at his weaknesses. Diego Costa can be wound up, which I am sure Senderos will already be well aware of. He has managed to get himself 3 yellow cards in 5 games already, but the fuel only seems to ignite the flames as the scoring record shows. He will be a hard player to stop and Senderos needs to be careful as the ref will be informed on his antics against Ballotelli. We do not want to see a repeat of this dangerous football as risks like this not only affect the individual with red cards but it completely knocks the team, we can not afford this!
It’s a genuine daunting task attempting to write a preview and analyse Chelsea because each and every player is great in ability and has the potential to score against us on the weekend so I have narrowed it down to the above 3 players that I fear will create the most chaos in their areas.
Like touched upon earlier, Chelsea do have weaknesses that can be exploited evidently in defence and their choice of keeper , 22 year old Courtious who have played their parts in conceding 7 goals. It just so happens that they tend to deliver double that amount at the opposite end.
Man City put a stop to Costa on Sunday and forced him to concede his 3rd yellow card; we need to do the same. I can see there being a lot of yellow cards, predominantly on the Chelsea team sheet.
Outside of a leaky defence, we also have midweek games going in our favour as Chelsea played Bolton at home, have Sporting CP away midweek followed by Arsenal at home. I can see them fielding a slightly weaker side against us with the eyes on the following 2 games.
Injuries (list updated as news appears)
Benteke (Expect to see return for Man City)
Vlaar
Ramires
STAFF GAME PREDICTIONS
Mr_Cheese
I think the game will be a tough shocker but we play better on the road so I am going to predict 2-2 with a red card for Chelsea.
Oohaghpaulmcgrath
I’m going 3.1 to Chelsea
Badger
Blimey, it’s a tough one.
My head says that they will have too much for us, with their current free scoring.
But we have a fairly good record against them recently and should have drawn last season.
If they come at us, they’ll be playing our game, so you never know, hence my heart says a draw, 2-2.
Going back to reality, I suspect a 1-3 loss is probably more realistic.
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Chelskivovapopovski to smash us
one of the tougher games in our season, can’t help feeling like oohahahaha on this game, even with a full squad 2 pick from it was always gonna be difficult 1, can’t see were villa can cause chelsea trouble, but chelsea seem 2 be more attacking than normal which means its gonna be a stroll for chelsea.
3 nil chelsea
Here we go again!
The game is being played well, we are still defending heavily but the attacking is more promising and much more of it. Hutton seems to be playing very well again and Richardson is working hard to get the ball back. I know it is 1 nil down, but I like what I see.
Our worst performance so far. Gabby’s back to normal, Weimann just runs around, Westwood back to poor distribution and Hutton’s our best player.
Tbh tho, I’d take this score!!
It wasn’t a bad performance. Our is issue is going forward, we have no attack and when players are constantly ruining the crosses from set pieces, what chance are we giving ourselves? Every set piece was disgusting. We need to spend more on our attacking options.
—EDIT—
Bringing Bent on in a double sub and he only touched the ball 3 times. Nobody looked brave enough going forward, there was no ambition and it looked like everybody was trying to pass the ball to somebody else so they didn’t look bad if they miss passed/ crossed. If we they want to learn the hard way, they are going to get the message.
Ya we never looked like scoring today and no where near getting some points. I don’t feel though that we played all to badly. Baker outfoxed for costa’s goal but the other 2 were just the statistical brutality of have so much possession and the volume of attacks coming our way. Also the sharpness and quality of chelseas squad. Its hard to see any weaknesses in this chelsea team, Terry maybe for pace at the back but he makes up for that in other areas.
but my god, Costa, being serviced by Hazard, Fabregas, Willian (who was excellent) and oscar! with schurle and Remy as back up! thats incredible strenght in depth.
Look just outclassed today Chelsea look so strong this year its scary.
There wasn’t any panic in the team at least, the organisation was very good.
Hutton played well, Delph and Cleverly played well with little possession they had.
We lacked the will to impose ourselves on it but maybe we are still way way too far from trying that type of game at chelsea away.
Man city next …. *big exhale*
You can NOT keep having around 25-30% posession per game and 1 to 2 shots on target per game and expect to win.
Thats how its been since the 2nd half of the Hull game.
Far too defensive.
I had to laugh or would have cried, Bent came on and shocked Steve Claridge and the BBC sports commentator he said is that Bent ? he’s put weight on ,from the last time I’ve seen him,Claridge said I’d best not comment. Well two down and two to go, from all account’s had a couple of chances, better tell Abonglahor what a cross bar and goal posts are he’s missing chances again. I can only go on what I heard on radio so not clear of that comment. Cheer up lads its only a game. Fuck it where’s that whisky?……
you cant keep aving around 25% 30% posession lmao not many teams will visit stamford bridge and take the ball away from the blues, better sides than us will struggle with that. ppl get all obsessed on possession lol its wot teams do when they av the ball, when we play teams in our skill lvls, we will av enough of the ball to score.
i am happy with the outcome, we could av gone forwards more or kept more of the BALL more. but the result or scoreline wasn’t ever in doubt. it could av been a hell of alot worse. so bring on city next and then more winnable matches, lick our wounds and get ready for them
the summer is over back to normal for villa fans,we fluked against stoke scraped by against newcastle 1 good half v hull shows how poor lpool are aresnal played for 3 mins and ten seconds and passed the ball more times than any other team last 2 years,never laid a glove on chelsea,people on here thinking benteke going to come back and solve all,came back last year much to quick took him 10 matches to get going,kozack broke his leg taking 10 months to get back seem to remember other players coming back in 3,showing nowwhy nobody came in for vlar our site owner probarly not far wrong about him,okore where has he gone,cole what is the point,then we give lambert gabby hutton new contracts i dont drink but when read this back nearly try it
breathe jvillian
hey and other than that alls good
Has somebody pissed Oohah off? he’s gone AWOL, Oohah what’s your take on the game mate,
well i aven’t the foggiest where hes gone 2 but iam sure he’ll pop on to trash the villa.
p.s i can’t say iam missing him i am sworn to tell the truth
I disagree, I thought we were terrible, lack lustre going forward. We had absolutely no idea once we got into the final 3rd. Chelsea never got out of 1st gear. Wasn’t Cole bought in for creativity because that is STILL what we’re missing
iam sure had villa had the chelsea team players and chelsea had the villa players both teams would av approached the game differently. mourinho has parked many busses in his time. look the villa management thought playing this way, was our only chance to get sumat from game ~ oh unless you thought we could outplay them or out score um
cole isn’t fully fit has pick up a knee injury and isn’t ready why do we look 2 players not picked bring on bent we hear all the time, hes a waste of space, he came on he made absolutely no contribution, i wasn’t meaning efforts on goal i am looking for just plain effort he has had his day,