Boxing Day action in the Premier League will be highlighted by a fascinating matchup between a rebooted Aston Villa side and Chelsea. Can Steven Gerrard and his team provide another blow to the Blues’ title challenge?
Both teams have scored in six of the last eight Chelsea games and bookmaker 10Bet has the odds at 1.95 for it to happen at Villa Park as well. The odds are at 10.50 for both teams to score and Villa to win and at 4.05 for Chelsea to win with both sides scoring.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: December 25th, 8:00 A.M. (EST)
Chelsea looked unstoppable early in the campaign especially after Romelu Lukaku joined the team, but the big Belgian then suffered an injury and Thomas Tuchel’s men have struggled to keep up with Manchester City and Liverpool in recent times.
The Blues have won just twice in their last six league outings dropping points in back-to-back games ahead of their trip to Villa Park.
Chelsea’s defensive play has been unusually lackluster and the team fired blanks last time out in a goalless draw against Wolverhampton. Lukaku’s presence upfront has been clearly missed, but the good news is that he should be fit for Sunday’s matchup.
Lukaku’s return will lift some pressure off Mason Mount, who has been the main offensive catalyst this month. He’s produced four goals and two assists in five league outings in December. If Gerrard wants to keep up his good start at Villa, he has to find a way to control Mount’s bursting runs into the penalty area.
Gerrard has started life at Villa with four wins and two defeats. His side competed well against both Manchester City and Liverpool, but the two title challengers had just enough quality to walk away with one-goal wins.
Villa’s defense has looked much better under the new regime and Gerrard hasn’t sacrificed the offense to get things right at the back again. The full-backs are actually looking a lot more offensive-minded and it’s helped the side to be very creative in attack.
Jacob Ramsey has been a big beneficiary of the change and he’s become ever-present under Gerrard who’s a great role model for the young midfielder. Ramsey scored a beautiful solo goal in the last game against Norwich and he should relish the challenge of taking on a super-talented Chelsea midfield.
Villa still have more losses (9) than wins (7) for the season, but the European spots aren’t far away anymore and beating the reigning Champions League winners on Boxing Day would certainly provide a big boost for the team. They lost this season’s first meeting to Chelsea 3-0 when Lukaku bagged a brace, but the Villans picked up four points from the matchup last season and it should give them the belief that everything is possible on Sunday.
