Aston Villa vs Chelsea: Preview

Looking ahead to our crucial FA Cup replay at fortress Villa Park.

Chelsea travel to the Midlands today to take on Aston Villa for a place in the last 16 of the FA Cup. The game is taking place at 8:00 UK time at Villa Park and whoever progresses will face Leeds United in a home tie. 

It is live on ITV1 for viewers in the UK. 

The game ended up going to a replay after a 0-0 draw at Stamford Bridge 12 days ago where Djordje Petrovic and Emi Martinez shone. 

Aston Villa have only lost twice at Villa Park this season with those defeats coming against Everton in the League Cup and a 3-1 loss to Newcastle in the league last week. 

Chelsea come into the game in dreadful form having conceded eight goals in our last two games and we are without an away win since we narrowly defeated Luton at Kenilworth Road on the 30th of December. 

Many Chelsea fans (myself included) have started to lose interest in our games after the last week as we’ve had to endure two completely hopeless and uninspiring displays, but today marks the chance to progress in another cup which is the only source of joy for us this season. 

A heavy defeat today and Mauricio Pochettino’s time at Chelsea will surely be over. The owners are putting a lot of emphasis on the cups as they’re our most likely route into Europe this season.

We’re in the Carabao Cup final which is a great achievement considering the state of the club, but we’re going to need a miracle to win that.

Tonight’s game is very important and I’m already seeing Chelsea fans wanting Villa to win to put the nail in the coffin for the manager, but putting your thoughts on the Argentine aside, we need to win this game. 

Chelsea have eight players on the injury list currently, Trevoh Chalobah and Robert Sanchez are nearing their returns whilst Levi Colwill, Romeo Lavia, Wesley Fofana, Marc Cucurella, Reece James and Lesley Ugochukwu are “continuing to undergo their rehabilitation programmes.”

Aston Villa will have the same players available as they did at Stamford Bridge but will be missing Ezri Konsa which is a big blow for them. 

I dread to think how toxic the club will be if we lose tonight, social media platforms and the away fans will be in full voice throughout the game and should we lose, chants of ‘Roman Abramovich’ will surely resurface again. 

It’s been briefed that Pochettino will be given the cup final, but we’ve seen those briefs before with other managers and we’ve seen how quickly that statement can turn around so with the potential added pressure of tonight, it could be the last time we see him in the dugout.

Hopefully, we don’t have to endure the toxicity tonight as it’s becoming draining to support the club. It’d just be nice to have something to cheer about. 

In terms of a predicted lineup and score prediction, it seems like Pochettino will resort to the desperate Chelsea manager’s manual and switch to a five at the back which will hopefully allow us to be more solid at the back, whilst allowing the wingbacks to push on. This is the team I expect to see: 

Finally, a score prediction from me, my head is telling me that we will lose a boring 1-0 game but my heart says we may nick it 1-0 in extra time thanks to a goal from former Villa player Carney Chukwuemeka. We can only wait and see what happens and hope that we can pull off a shock result. 

Let us know what you want the lineup to be, and your predictions for the game. UTC. 

By Will Reyner