Pochettino’s Villa selection headache potentially without star – Talk Chelsea

Chelsea welcome Aston Villa to Stamford Bridge this Sunday for the 2pm kick off live in front of the Sky cameras once again for the second week in a row.

Last Sunday didn’t go great playing in the same scheduled fixture for that time, drawing 0-0 with Bournemouth. Let’s hope this Sunday we get a better result.

I am still in the mindset that I believe a win is coming and I feel we are playing well. We are lacking finesse (which is getting SO boring and frustrating to say) but we are playing well. I also feel we need to bounce back as such and get our season on track, so a home fixture against Villa is a great chance to do so. I’m not ready to lose too much faith just yet, even if I have lost a little.

Chelsea are in 14th position in the league table after 5 games played, and Villa are in 7th place.

Villa have not drawn any of their opening games, winning 3 and losing 2. They’ve beaten Crystal Palace, Burnley, and Everton, and the worrying thing is that they have scored 10 goals in those 3 matches!

But on the flipside to that, they have conceded 8 goals in the two games they lost. We won’t mention who they were against though lets keep the good vibes rolling!

Somehow, and I still have no idea how or who works these out, but Chelsea have a 51% win probability, and Villa have 24%.

When I was a kid, Villa used to be a real bogey team for us. One of my mates at school supported them and he was the only Villa fan in the whole school. But I remember him often teasing me more than I could tease him at that point anyway!

And the head-to-head records back this up. The two clubs have met 162 times since the first game in 1907. Chelsea have edged it with 68 wins, but Villa have also won 59 of those games and drawn 35 against us.

In terms of lineups, we have to wait a bit to see the fitness of Moises Caicedo and hear from Mauricio Pochettino in the press conference. Which means I have to do a couple of scenarios for each game. So first of all, let’s keep the vibes up and say Caicedo will be fit.

So here is my PREFERRED lineup:

I know some might think Mudryk needs to start again and I don’t disagree. I just love the confidence and direct dangers that Madueke brings and I think he earned a start from his good games on international break – he seems to be in a good momentum. The rest for me at least, pick themselves.

And this is my PREDICTED lineup:

Right, now lets lower the mood and say that Caicedo doesn’t make it this Sunday.

Here is my PREFERRED:

So as you can see, my lineup would be a mix of a 4-3-3 and a 4-2-3-1. I’d want to make sure that Enzo is closest to Ugochukwu, and Palmer has more of a free role rather than set 8s. Enzo I don’t want to see too far wide on the left or too advanced, and I’d want Sterling operating those areas instead. He would be able to do that with Chilwell overlapping. Gusto and Madueke can do the same down the right. I think that would be our most dangerous setup.

My PREDICTED:

I honestly see Pochettino going with the same lineup as last Sunday, as frustrating as that would be in my opinion.

But let’s see. My faith stays with Poch.

My score prediction. Yikes….. I’m going to keep the vibes because I honestly think we are so close to getting a good win. I also think although Villa can score a goal, I can see it being tight. I’m going for 2-0 to Chelsea.

Goalscorers? Palmer off the bench, and Sterling.