Chelsea face Aston Villa in the Premier League on Sunday afternoon at Villa Park.
The start to the 2022/23 season has been contrasting for Chelsea and Aston Villa. Steven Gerrard’s side have struggled to get going, winning just two of their opening nine Premier League matches.
Meanwhile for Chelsea, it’s been chaotic. After a mixed start to the season, they sacked Thomas Tuchel and replaced him with Graham Potter. Since then, they haven’t looked back. Chelsea have won four games in a row, keeping a clean sheet in their last three and are starting to build real momentum in the run-up to the World Cup break.
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Chelsea have been affected by injuries though since the start of the season. They have welcomed back Edouard Mendy from a knee problem, but are facing weeks and months without Wesley Fofana (knee), N’Golo Kante (hamstring) and Reece James (knee).
Fofana is set to be out until after the World Cup, while Kante is expected to miss around three months due to suffering a setback in training after stepping up his return from a hamstring injury sustained in August against Tottenham Hotspur.
James will also miss at least several weeks after coming off against AC Milan in midweek. Potter refused to give a definite update but the 22-year-old’s World Cup spot with England is in doubt and it’s now a race against time to recover and get fit should he not require surgery.
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"I don't think you should blame everything on luck that's for sure,” responded Potter on questions over Chelsea’s injury record, as quoted by football.london.
"I think we can have a look and see what we can do better. Obviously, I've been here a few weeks so I haven't got the answers completely. But clearly, we want to always try to improve and that's an area that we can probably improve."
The Chelsea head coach added: "It would be wrong to say we won’t miss a player like Reece or NG – Wesley Fofana as well. But that’s the job of the squad, my challenge is to find different solutions. We haven’t got another Reece James or another N’Golo Kante. You’ve got to find a different way of working in the team. Tactically, that’s a challenge but one we are up for."
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Chelsea will travel to Villa Park as the firm favourites for the league encounter. Gerrard believes Chelsea should be “wiping the floor” on Sunday afternoon.
“When you come to places with Brighton, with all due respect, it's different when you come with Chelsea because they should be competing for the league, Champions League, and coming to Villa Park and wiping the floor with us,” Gerrard told Sky Sports ahead of the game.
Another three points for Chelsea will cement their place in the top four, but Villa won't go down without a fight as they look to turn their form around to relieve some of the pressure mounting on Gerrard.
Kick-Off Times
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United Kingdom
14:00 BST
United Arab Emirates
17:00 GST
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United States of America
Eastern time: 09:00 EDT
Pacific time: 06:00 PDT
How To Watch
The game will be available to watch live on Sky Sports in the United Kingdom.
For those in the United States, the game can be watched on Peacock Premium.
Topics: Aston Villa, Chelsea, Premier League, Football
Matthew Debono