The English Premier League resumes for Chelsea FC on Saturday with a trip to Villa Park, home of Aston Villa FC, a game which the Blues have had 7 whole days to rest and prepare adequately for. This welcome break comes after 2 gruelling fixtures, a 1-0 home win against Liverpool on Tuesday last week after 120 action-packed minutes followed by another tough home game on Saturday against the current league champions Manchester City which was billed as a potential title deciding clash (the press sure have a way of blowing everything out of proportion, don’t they…) which ended 1-1 (in favour of Chelsea as they remain 5 points clear at the top).
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Last week’s game against Liverpool came with its casualties. Francesc Fabregas, Chelsea’s and the EPL’s assist leader, was injured in a nasty collision with John Terry and is still battling to be fit for this game after missing the Manchester City fixture. Filipe Luis had to limp off with an ankle injury and has officially been ruled out of this game, while Diego Costa, Chelsea’s and the EPL’s top scorer, will be facing the 2nd of his 3-match ban for his alledged “intentional” stamp on Emre Can.
Losing key players is always a really difficult position to be in, but against a side who have failed to score in their last 5 games and have only scored 11 goals so far this season and conceded 30, this should be a routine win. Unless your team is being managed by Jose Mourinho!
Jose Mourinho has failed to register a win against Aston Villa in the 5 games he has managed against them as Chelsea FC boss at Villa Park in all tournaments. This run stretches way back to the 2004/2005 title-winning season when Chelsea were unable to beat them in the 5th game of that season after 4 consecutive wins. Since then, Chelsea FC, under Mourinho, have drawn 3 and lost 2 of the games played at Villa Park.
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Defeats at Villa Park have had major consequences for Jose Mourinho. The 2-0 defeat on 2nd September, 2007 was Mourinho’s last EPL game in his first spell as Chelsea boss as he was sacked after the 0-0 draw against Copenhagen in the UEFA Champions League a few days later, while last season’s fixture, a 1-0 defeat was an ill-tempered game that saw Ramires sent off for a rash tackle and Mourinho fined a few days later for encroaching into the pitch without the referee’s consent.
So with Mourinho’s history at Villa Park, this fixture is expected to be a difficult one in spite of Aston Villa’s woeful form. Nemanja Matic has acceded to that fact in a recent interview but has also stated that the team have no excuses in this fixture:
"“Yes, we know that Aston Villa, especially at home will be very difficult team to play against,” he said. “But we have to win. We have to stay in the first position and we will do everything we can to win. “I repeat, we know that they are good, but we want to stay with a minimum five point lead against City.”"
Jose Mourinho, with the backing of Chelsea FC, had refused to honour the pre-match and post-match press conferences for the Manchester City game after the 3-match ban issued to Diego Costa was confirmed on Friday last week. But he is expected to honour this fixture’s meeting with the press. Lets hope he can find a way to end his Villa Park jinx and maintain our 5-point lead at the top of the EPL table.