The Londoners won 3-2 in this time slot at Nottingham Forest in May, but our only such fixture this term was January’s 3-1 loss at Manchester City.

This is the Villans’ fourth straight match at home across all competitions and the third of five fixtures Unai Emery must navigate over an intensive 14 days. The hosts sit ninth after sharing the points with Ipswich Town last weekend and Liverpool on Wednesday, with a trip to Crystal Palace to come on Tuesday.

A first away win in six attempts would return Chelsea to the Champions League berths with around a third of the season to play. A third league double is also up for grabs as Villa were beaten 3-0 at Stamford Bridge in early December, with goals from Nicolas Jackson, Enzo Fernandez and Cole Palmer.

Team news

In his pre-match press conference on Friday morning, Enzo Maresca confirmed Chelsea will once again be without Benoit Badiashile, Wesley Fofana, Romeo Lavia, Marc Guiu and Jackson when we take on Aston Villa due to the respective injuries which have ruled them out of our recent matches.

The Italian also revealed Noni Madueke will miss the trip to Birmingham as well, after being forced off against Brighton & Hove Albion last Friday.

‘We don't have any update on the injuries,’ Maresca said. ‘We don't have any additional injuries, which is good.

‘Noni will probably be out until the international break. We can have most of the players back after the international break, maybe all of them, and it can be a big boost for us.’

The history

Villa Park is one of Chelsea’s happiest Premier League hunting grounds, the Londoners recording 13 wins in the claret half of Birmingham since 1992. Only at Tottenham Hotspur (16) and Southampton (15) have we enjoyed more victories.

Since the turn of the century, results have come in batches. Conor Gallagher’s late strike for a 2-2 draw at Villa Park last season ended a run of two consecutive losses to the Birmingham side. Prior to that, the Blues had lost only five of our 34 meetings across all competitions, stretching back to 2004 – including hefty 8-0 and 7-1 home victories at the Bridge.

At Villa Park, the Blues’ best-ever result was a 6-2 win in 1966, in which prolific Bobby Tambling netted five. Beyond that, one of the most memorable came in May 2013, shortly before we beat Benfica in the Europa League final.

Missing several regular starters, the Londoners trailed for an hour to Christian Benteke’s early opener. With typically brilliant timing, Frank Lampard twice arrived in the box to find a way past Brad Guzan for a 2-1 win.

In doing so, the midfielder edged past all-time top scorer Tambling’s 202 goals on the way to his eventual tally of 211 – prompting scenes of celebration in the away end almost matching those in Amsterdam four days later.

Three years on, a 4-0 victory featuring two Pedro stunners made the Londoners the third club to rack up 200 away games in the Premier League.

In 2022, Graham Potter’s side made it seven wins from nine top-flight trips, with the 2-0 defeat of a Villans team managed by Steven Gerrard. Mason Mount was responsible for both goals, scored quickly in each half.

Our only win since then was the 3-1 in round four of last season’s FA Cup, the goals shared by Gallagher, Jackson and Fernandez, Moussa Diaby grabbing Villa's late consolation.

Know this...

Chelsea are unbeaten on our last four visits to Villa Park in league and cup, since our 2-1 defeat in May 2021. The Londoners have won six of our past eight matches across all competitions at Villa Park.

Palmer has created 66 chances in this season’s Premier League – the most by any player.

Fernandez could score against the Villans for the third match in a row, having found the net at the Bridge in December in the league and last season at Villa Park in the FA Cup.

Only Forest (10 from 53 attempts) and Liverpool (nine from 71) have scored more headed league goals this term than Villa (eight from 49). Chelsea have hit five from 54 efforts.

The 3-0 win in the reverse of this fixture was one of four clean sheets in Chelsea’s current Premier League campaign.