Aston Villa vs Chelsea predictions: Attack the best form of defence for stuttering pair
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- Aston Villa will head into the weekend sitting three places and four points below Chelsea
- Chelsea are sixth but only a point off top four
- Recommended bet: Over 3.5 goals
Premier League wins have been in short supply for Aston Villa and Chelsea of late but both will be hoping to reignite their top-four hopes when they meet at Villa Park on Saturday evening.
Villa, still involved in this season's Champions League, are off the pace in the race for a return to Europe's top table next season following a five-match winless run in the top flight.
Chelsea have still been winning games, triumphing in two of their last four league fixtures, but both those victories came on home soil and they are without a top-flight success on the road since early December.
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Team news
Villa will be without Axel Disasi for this game as the on-loan defender is ineligible to face his parent club, which means head coach Unai Emery will be even more keen to welcome Ezri Konsa back from a recent knock.
Leon Bailey (knock) could also return for this game, but Boubacar Kamara (thigh), Pau Torres (ankle), Ross Barkley (calf) and Amadou Onana (thigh) all remain sidelined.
Chelsea's injury list is growing following the hamstring injury suffered by Noni Madueke at Brighton last week, but full-back Malo Gusto, who was also forced off at the Amex Stadium, is expected to be available.
Romeo Lavia (muscle), Nicolas Jackson, Marc Guiu, Wesley Fofana and Benoit Badiashile (all hamstring) are still some way from returning to action.
The stats
Villa are without a win in five Premier League games (D4, L1), but they are unbeaten in their last 13 top-flight matches at Villa Park since losing 2-0 to Arsenal in August.
Chelsea are without a win in their last six away matches across all competitions and come into this game following back-to-back losses at Brighton, one in the league and one in the FA Cup.
The Blues are unbeaten in their last four meetings with Villa and claimed a 3-0 success when the teams last met at Stamford Bridge in December — Nicolas Jackson, Enzo Fernandez and Cole Palmer scoring the goals for Enzo Maresca's side that day.
Villa have won only two of their last 11 Premier League home games against Chelsea, last doing so in May 2021, although that 2-1 victory came just six days before the Blues beat Manchester City in that year's Champions League final.
Prediction
This is a meeting between two sides that have lost the knack for winning Premier League games and that makes calling a victor on Saturday difficult.
However, one thing that should be guaranteed is goals, with each of Villa's last nine home games across all competitions seeing both teams score, including their midweek 2-2 with league leaders Liverpool.
The January arrivals of Marcus Rashford, Marco Asensio and Donyell Malen have further strengthened Villa's firepower and they can hurt a Chelsea defence whose only clean sheet across their last 10 fixtures was against League Two Morecambe in the FA Cup.
Villa's defence is also leaky, as emphasised by their lack of home clean sheets, while they are also dealing with a number of injury absentees in their backline.
The last two meetings between these sides at Villa Park yielded four goals on each occasion and more of the same is expected in what could be a Saturday night blockbuster in the West Midlands.
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