Chelsea v Aston Villa: Premier League – Live! | Football

28 minutes: Almost half an hour, and he’s almost 50-50 in possession (OK, 53-46), leveled at the corners and Villa leads in shots.

25 minutes: Kante fouls McGinn, about 40 meters from the goal. Grealish sends a good ball into the box from the free kick, where Hause finds some space and runs towards him, but lifts his header over the goal.

21 minutes: Kante sends the ball into the heart of Aston Villa’s penalty area, where Pulisic attempts a Cash volley to the head. There will be a slight interruption while the phsyios examine it.

19 minutes: There is absolutely no doubt that Villa believes they can win this, and so far they are giving all the best they are getting. Traore is the last to try his luck, hacking off his left foot but shooting a defender.

16 minutes: Grealish dribbles to the baseline, but his setback is behind Watkins, but too far ahead of everyone else. “There was a great quote in the early ’90s (I think from a Boro player),” writes Mark Hooper, “when the debate was raging on how football in the new era of the Premier League was affecting the form of the national team: “Isn’t it so bad to play soccer twice a week? My colleagues do that too, and the rest of the week they have real jobs. All we do in between is cut our hair! ‘”. That was perhaps true before 1992, when the impression given by some players is that training mainly involved exercising the arm that holds the pint in the pub, but I think) genuine work is now expected.

14 minutes: An action-packed start to the game. No Mount makes it to the baseline to the left of the goal before backing off and Pulisic runs towards her, but McGinn follows him and gets one foot in the way of the shot.

13 minutes: Villa wins a corner and again Grealish sends the ball directly to a Chelsea player, this time Mendy.

11 minutes: Pulisic hits the side net! Grealish picks up the ball from a throw-in and lifts a pass back to Martinez who floats in place to Pulisic, who runs to the pair of defenders still blocking his way to goal, gets into the area and shoots wide.

7 minutes: From the corner, Grealish throws the ball back to El Ghazi, who lurks on the edge of the area, but his first shot is deflected and he dribbles limply towards Mendy.

6 minutes: And in seconds, a save at the other end! Grealish receives the ball in the left corner of the area, pushes it out of Kante onto his right foot and attempts the world’s most predictable curly shot to the far post, which Mendy pushes away.

6 minutes: Chelsea have started well and have just made their first shot on goal, a side volley that falls from Rudiger from a corner that Martinez collects.

4 minutes: Pulisic falls down the left, under Grealish’s entrance, and is enraged when the referee fails to give Chelsea a free kick. I’m with Stuart Attwell – it seemed like a cheeky dive.

2 minutes: “The focus has been on Lampard’s comments about playing twice in quick succession, but is Evans betting on making so few changes?” Steve Forstneger wonders. I suppose time will tell, but many ex-footballers seem quite skeptical that there is something wrong with athletes in top form playing twice in three days.

The Chelsea team is meeting in the tunnel. Liquidator is calling the Bridge. Imminent action.

Dean Smith has a talk, mainly about the absence of changes in his team:

There are two lines of thought: rotating and regaining your legs or continual momentum and confidence. I looked them all in the eye and asked if they were ready to start over and they said yes. We have shown that we have depth within our team. You are always concerned about the quality of the players they have. In their day they are very, very good in this league.

Frank Lampard has A chat. He says his changes come because “it is impossible to ask the same XI to play in two days at the same level,” although I thought the point was that they were asked to play at a different level.

We have not had time to train, so the changes would occur regardless. it is impossible to ask the same XI to play in two days at the same level. They are very confident. We have to be aware of that. If we play at the right levels, with the right intensity, we should be fine, but we have to contribute that.

News here from what should have been today’s third and final Premier League match, which will now need to be rescheduled:

The best About this game from the home team’s point of view is that it gives them an almost instantaneous opportunity to play the defeat of Arsenal, and for that matter, the losses of Everton and Wolves, out of their system. They have the second-best home record in the division, as they haven’t lost at home in any competition since Liverpool played at Stamford Bridge in September (though it’s a strange season, and there are four teams with away records at least as good. like Chelsea’s home record). es, including Aston Villa), and now they have the opportunity to expand it. Lampard notably accused his players of lacking character at Arsenal on December 26, leaving them highly motivated to prove their worth tonight or, well, they won’t. If they continue to find elusive motivation, Aston Villa will be ready to punish them. The Villains are a transformed team this season, they start the game ahead of Chelsea with a goal difference (by one) and only Liverpool, Leeds and Manchester City have taken more shots than them.

In head-to-head news, precisely 50% of the last 10 matches between these teams have ended 2-1 against Chelsea. The other five finished 2-0, 3-0, 4-0 and 8-0 against Chelsea, and Villa achieved a 1-0 home win in March 2014. This combination of teams tends to produce entertainment: just three of the last 21 matches between Chelsea and Villa have been drawn, and even they averaged 4⅔ goals each (and one was goalless). For whatever reason, I’m looking forward to this one. Welcome!