Chelsea FC Host Aston Villa: Times, TV, All You Need To Know

Chelsea welcome Tim Sherwood’s men in a crunch tie.

Chelsea FC play host to Aston Villa this afternoon as Jose Mourinho’s team look to get this next period of domestic football off to a positive start. The Blues have been suffering in this 2015/16 Premier League campaign, accumulating just eight points from eight games.

Chelsea will be hoping to find some sort of form after taking a weekend off due to international action. Several Blues players represented their countries, but Mourinho claimed that no-one managed to put on a display that was any improvement on their club shows. In the manager’s point of view, that was encouraging as it meant that the terrible Chelsea performances were down to the squad members not performing, as opposed to issues with the system.

One person notably absent from the international scene was Diego Costa. The striker was dropped by Vicente Del Bosque and subsequently criticised for his behaviour in the Arsenal game. He is, however, available for selection after serving his three-match ban and Blues fans will be hoping that the criticism sparks Costa in an effective manner.

Branislav Ivanovic, meanwhile, is out due to injury. This should herald the arrival of Abdul Baba Rahman onto the Premier League stage although it would not be surprising if Mourinho devised a plan to keep the Ghanian on the bench.

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Aston Villa come into this fixture in a desperate situation. Their terrible start to the season has left them two positions below Chelsea (unbelievable, I know) in 18th place and the pressure is mounting on Tim Sherwood to turn matters around.

Villa have only picked up four points thus far, with their sole win coming on opening day. They do possess a young squad, but the Villa Park faithful would have expected more from the side that narrowly avoided relegation last term.

Sherwood himself has admitted that his job is the most vulnerable at the moment, but the straight-talking tactician has insisted that Villa supporters will be singing his name soon enough.

So here are all the key details ahead of the big game.