Aston Villa vs Chelsea Prediction & Betting Tips - Premier League

Prediction published on 22/12/2021, 23:15  by Daniel Ngulu | Modified on 23/12/2021 at 00:15 in Premier League Predictions

Aston Villa’s schedule was disrupted by the postponement of their game against Burnley but they will be back in action, on Boxing Day, hosting Chelsea in the Premier League. Villa will go to this game placed 10th with 22 points from 17 matches while Chelsea are third with 38 points, having played a game more. Aston Villa’s last game was on 14th and going to this one they’ll have had a 12-day rest. That should lift their hopes of bagging three points from this game and Steven Gerrard has done well since his appointment. In six matches, he’s only lost to the top two sides and will hope it doesn’t follow the trend as he meets the third placed side. In the last five matches, Villa have trailed at half time in just one, against Manchester City. Their last game ended in a 2-0 win over Norwich City, the fourth win in six under Gerrard and the only time they failed to score was in the 1-0 loss to Liverpool.

Chelsea have lost their fluidity and some of the solidity in defence that they had in the earlier stages of the season. This will be their third meeting with Villa this season and after a win and a draw, Thomas Tuchel knows this will be tough. In the first two meetings, Villa were under Dean Smith, and are now a better side. While Chelsea are unbeaten in their last five matches, they have been very shaky. They are coming from a 2-0 win over Brentford but it took an own goal in the 80th minute for the Blues to take the lead in the Carabao Cup clash. They then sealed it in the 85th minute with a Jorginho penalty. Chelsea haven’t led at half time in their last five matches and in the five matches, both teams have scored in three. The Blues have two straight clean sheets away from home but they have just one win in the last four away matches.