Play Predictor can only be found on The 5th Stand, Chelsea’s official mobile app. Download the app now on Android or iOs and start predicting today!

Backing Kai

One of the main discussion points each week when it comes to your Play Predictor predictions is who to select as your first goalscorer – trust me, I constantly go back and forth with the decision myself – but this week's choice is simple for me.

Kai Havertz. Reason? He’s a man in form and was looking really sharp in training before he headed off on international duty with Germany.

Not only that, but Kai is our most common first goalscorer this season – bet you didn’t realise that! He’s opened the scoring for us four times, with three of those coming at home. Starting to see my reasoning?

Quick tip: I noticed he missed Germany's last game with illness, but Graham Potter has confirmed he has shaken that off so can start for us on Saturday.

Second-half strikes

Here’s a little tip from me, but keep it to yourself! Predict Chelsea to score in the second half against Aston Villa.

Fifty-nine per cent of our goals have been scored in the second half, and the average time of our first goal is 51 minutes – so you've probably guessed it, that’s what time I’ll be picking this week!

Villa most commonly concede in the first 15 minutes of games, and in the last 15 minutes (nine each). We score most infrequently in the first 15 minutes of games (twice), and most often in the last 15 minutes (eight times). So there's some other stats to bear in mind!

Joy around the box?

Could the trickery of Joao Felix around the Villa penalty area determine the outcome of this game? That’s where I’d be sticking my neck out, if I had to.

We all know that the Portugal international is a star performer, and will be up against an experienced pro in Tyrone Mings, but having searched through the data – I think I’ve found an area for the Blues to exploit.

The Villa defender likes a challenge, but he’s committed 15 fouls, picked up four yellow cards and has a tackle success rate of 30 per cent. With Joao a player who likes to jink through outstretched legs, could Mings be likely to dive in and earn us set-pieces in dangerous areas? Potentially…

I’ll keep an eye out on training this week, to see if that’s an area Graham Potter and his staff focus on. Stay tuned and happy predicting!

Other key battles

Listen, I'm here to help but you don't have to take my word for everything! You can use our widget above to check the stats for other players and make your own assumptions of where the game could be won or lost!

Play Predictor can only be found on The 5th Stand, Chelsea’s official mobile app. Download the app now on Android or iOs and start predicting today!