Chelsea talking tactics: Dean Smith’s Aston Villa preparing for inevitable

Aston Villa may have had a lot of hope and history coming into this season, but Chelsea simply needs to know they are on their last legs.

Every newly promoted club can seemingly be placed into one of three categories: the team that crashes down without a fight, the team that stays up despite the odds, and the team that gets “the moral victory” by playing well while being relegated.

Aston Villa are either the first or the last. While they have put up a fight for much of the season, their fights still generally ended in convincing losses. The fight they once had is fading by the game and Dean Smith is rumored to be facing the sack if the club loses to Chelsea.

With it being lose or go home, Smith will need his best tactics against a rising Chelsea. Unfortunately for Frank Lampard, that seems to be the type of situation and club the Blues struggle with most this decade.

Generally, Aston Villa will play in a 4-3-3 or 4-1-4-1 shape. As the season has gone on and as Villa has struggled for points, they have tried other formations but they have rarely strayed too far from their tried and tested.

Whereas Villa once played tons of short, vertical passes at speed to get up field, now they more often than not just go for the old fashioned long ball. The name of the game is still to progress as quickly as possible, but it is not nearly as controlled as it once was.

When defending, the nearest forwards will generally start the press as the remainder of the team falls back into a defensive shape. Chelsea has been doing something similar recently to great effect, but Villa overall are not necessarily known as defensive stalwarts. They do have the worst defense in the league after all.

The biggest threat Aston Villa is able to pose is from their dribblers in the wide areas but that has always been an unstable foundation for a club. A good dribbler can turn a game on its head, but if they are out of form the team will sink with them. Chelsea saw as much with years of Eden Hazard.

The main thing Chelsea will need to do is press those dribblers out of possession before they can become a danger. After that, merely avoiding complacency will get the Blues the rest of the way.

Villa may be only two points from relegation zone escape, but the signs are pointing towards a club that already knows its fate. Chelsea can take advantage of that early, but if they do not the Villans will still have the bit of hope. The longer the match stays level, the more the pendulum will swing into the wrong side’s favor.

Chelsea simply needs to go in and get it done with whatever squad is available. This should be an easy one for the Blues if they perform to their capabilities, but even on a run of good form that is seemingly no guarantee.