Aston Villa vs Chelsea

Chelsea: Arrizabalaga, Chalobah, Thiago Silva, Cucurella, Mount, Loftus-Cheek, Kovacic, Chilwell, Havertz, Aubameyang, Sterling. Subs: Jorginho, Pulisic, Mendy, ...

It cost a lot more than I thought it was going to." He has rotated his squad to keep as many players involved as possible and there has been plenty of the tactical tinkering we saw at Brighton. Seems a fine man, be interesting to see if his pastoral, thoughtful approach will be given enough time to work at a club where they have traditionally brought in a flash manager for quick success. There has been some bad news though, with Reece James and Wesley Fofana lost to injury. Ollie Watkins, Danny Ings, Philippe Coutinho, Emi Buendia and Leon Bailey are a promising collection of attackers but there is little sense of how they piece together. Only Wolves have scored fewer goals than Aston Villa this term. "We have a big opportunity for a scalp today. Alan Smith: "What a nightmare for Tyrone Mings and Aston Villa. We know where we need to get better. The ball is deflected into their box, it balloons up in the air. Heroic stuff from the Chelsea custodian. Bailey has a freekick.

as it happened: live blog, updates, highlights, lineups, comments, etc.

(NGA); (India); none? A win is also necessary to keep in touch with the leading trio of teams.

Ruben Loftus-Cheek comes in instead, potentially on the right side with Mason Mount and Mateo Kovacic across the middle and Ben Chilwell on the left. It looks ...

[Kai Havertz](/en/teams/profile/kai-havertz) is the third player to be introduced, joining [Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang](/en/teams/profile/pierre-emerick-aubameyang) in attack. [Raheem Sterling](/en/teams/profile/raheem-sterling) was at right wing-back. [Reece James](/en/teams/profile/reece-james) confirmed to be out for around eight weeks with the knee injury he suffered in the midweek win at AC Milan in the Champions League.

Follow live updates as the Blues visit Villa in a bid to keep pace with the Premier League's top three.

They aren’t liking the intensity from Aston Villa. Chelsea look very shaky at the minute. He carries it inside and smokes a shot towards the near post but Kepa Arrizabalaga keeps it out! Leon Bailey weaves his way down the right side and whips a cross into the middle of the box. This one is even better from the Chelsea goalkeeper. Ramsey shifts the ball away from the Chelsea defender and gets whacked on the ankle of his standing leg afterwards. 45+2 mins: Chelsea take a slender one goal lead into the break but it’s been Aston Villa who are pressing the issue. Mason Mount brings the ball down the right and shifts away from a challenge before knocking it inside to Kai Havertz. Aston Villa 0-1 Chelsea Last weekend the former Liverpool midfielder’s Villa drew 1-1 at Nottingham Forest, coming from behind to earn a point. Steven Gerrard’s side are unbeaten in their last four league outings but have only won one of them. Upon taking over from Thomas Tuchel in mid-September, Potter drew his first game in charge and has since guided the west London club to four straight victories – most recently a 2-0 victory over AC Milan in the Champions League group stage this Tuesday (11 October).

Graham Potter's men look to consolidate their position in the top-4 while Steven Gerrard fights to see another day as Aston Villa's manager.

Aston Villa travels away from home twice facing Fulham and Newcastle United on the 21st and 29th of October respectively. The club is fresh from the 2-0 bashing of AC Milan at the San Siro and would look to extend their run of form. A revamped Chelsea outfit travels away from home battling it out with Aston Villa as Graham Potter looks to extend Chelsea’s astounding run of form in all competitions.