
Tomorrow evening, Chelsea will return to action when they make the trip to the West Midlands to face Aston Villa on match day 29 of the Premier League season.
It's an absolutely crucial game, with both sides vying to secure a top five spot and thus UEFA Champions League football for next season.
Our hosts are having quite a strange season. They started the season incredibly slowly, and after four games, they were the only team in the top four divisions in England without a goal.
Yet, they soon found their feet and went on an incredible winning run that saw them within a couple of points of the top of the league. That run peaked with a 2-1 win against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge back in December.
Since then, things have been a little more complicated, and Unai Emery's side have only won one of their last five games in the Premier League, and one of their last six in all competitions.
This was summed up with a 2-0 defeat to bottom of the table Wolves last Friday evening, in a game where they looked incredibly void of ideas, and were deservedly beaten.
As you can expect, an inquest is ongoing to try to get to the bottom of this recent form. A lot of the reason is put on the absence of two crucial players: Youri Tielemans and Boubacar Kamara.
When everyone is fit, those two are undoubtedly the first-choice midfielders for Emery. Kamara provides physicality, defensive prowess, and crisp passing. Then Tielemans provides the guile, control, and final-third threat. Take any team's two best midfielders out of the picture, and form will dip.
Fortunately for Liam Rosenior's side, neither will return for this game, which gives Chelsea a massive boost. Skipper John McGinn has also been out with a knee injury and is set to miss this game, too.
Up front, the usually reliable Ollie Watkins has struggled this season, finding the net just eight times in the league and indeed across all competitions, having played 38 times.
Owing to this poor form, he could be dropped from the team tomorrow. As a result, we may well see a familiar name, with Cobham graduate Tammy Abraham resigning for the club in the January transfer window. So far, the 28-year-old has scored twice in 214 minutes of action since returning.
At the back, Villa have looked more vulnerable without Kamara screening the defence. Lucas Digne has been a clear weak link at left-back, and if he starts over Ian Maatsen, has to be a target for Chelsea. It would be great to see Estevao running at him.
Huge game for Champions League football. Let's see.
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