Chelsea are looking to close the gap on third-placed Aston Villa and boost their Champions League qualification hopes in the process when they take on Unai Emery’s side on Wednesday.
Here’s everything you need to know ahead of the game…
Kick-off time
7:30pm UK time, Wednesday March 4
How to watch
TNT Sports 3
Streaming on Discovery +
Injuries and suspensions
Aston Villa: Garcia (doubt), Kamara (out), Elliott (doubt), Tielemans (out), McGinn (out)
Chelsea: Mudryk (suspended), Cucurella (doubt), Colwill (out), Essugo (doubt), Estevao (doubt), Gittens (out), Neto (suspended)
Predicted line-ups
Aston Villa (4-2-3-1): Martinez; Cash, Konsa, Mings, Digne; Onana, Luiz; Sancho, Rogers, Bailey; Abraham
Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Sanchez; James, Fofana, Badiashile, Gusto; Caicedo, Fernandez; Palmer, Joao Pedro, Garnacho; Delap
Recent form
Villa were beaten 2-0 by midlands rivals Wolves in their last outing and are winless in their last three games in all competitions.
Chelsea’s form has also dipped, losing to Arsenal on Sunday which followed back-to-back Premier League draws against Leeds and Burnley.
What’s been said?
Villa head coach Unai Emery: “It’s our fourth experience (season) here with Aston Villa. The first year, we arrived in November, and progressively, we were getting better, and we achieved to play in Europe.
“The second year, we started so, so strong the season, and the second part of the season, we struggled, but we achieved Champions League.
“And last year, we started the season, the first part of the season, not very good. The second part, we did a fantastic second part of the season, and we achieved to play in Europa League.
“And this year, we started so poor. We did a fantastic three months, performing so, so good, and now we are in a not good moment, but every day is the opportunity to try to recover confidence, recover our energy, recover our good form we had every day.
“And tomorrow, we can show it in Villa Park against Chelsea.”
Chelsea head coach Liam Rosenior on his side’s disciplinary issues: “The first thing is picking the players who are actually showing that improvement. I cannot afford to go through a season picking up a red card every one or two games, it just isn’t possible.
“So I need to see improvement and I need to adjust my team selection based on those players that are showing those capabilities.”