Chelsea 3 Aston Villa 0

[JaneB]

Please use this thread for all posts relating to our Premier League match against Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge before, during and after the game.

The match is scheduled to kick off at 13:30 hours on Sunday, 1st December 2024 (Local UK time/date) (Live on Sky Sports)

[chrisb]

Villa on a bad run at the minute, hopefully it continues into this game and we have a comfortable home win.

[CarefreeMuratcan]

We win this and we are 3 points behind Liverpool just before they host City. So so important to win and then get ourselves in the "that which must not be named" discussion. 

[Blue Moon]

Just considering taking a bath in strong carbolic after supporting Spuds today, and wondering if I’ll be doing the same after Pool : City next weekend … 

Lovely birthday present for Maddison, and contract extension celebration for Pep

[CarefreeMuratcan]

2 minutes ago, Blue Moon said:

Just considering taking a bath in strong carbolic after supporting Spuds today, and wondering if I’ll be doing the same after Pool : City next weekend … 

Lovely birthday present for Maddison, and contract extension celebration for Pep

Ah I see your logic is City are still the ones to finish ahead and Liverpool will probably drop off?  I didn't think of it that way. 

[Proud-Blue]

19 minutes ago, CarefreeMuratcan said:

We win this and we are 3 points behind Liverpool just before they host City. So so important to win and then get ourselves in the "that which must not be named" discussion. 

I think it would be six points, unless they lose to Southampton tomorrow? 

[Blue Moon]

16 minutes ago, CarefreeMuratcan said:

Ah I see your logic is City are still the ones to finish ahead and Liverpool will probably drop off?  I didn't think of it that way. 

Never underestimate Pep

[CarefreeMuratcan]

34 minutes ago, Proud-Blue said:

I think it would be six points, unless they lose to Southampton tomorrow? 

Whoops! 

Oh well no backing down now:

"Oh when the Saints..."

[Sciatika]

"... go marching in"

[My Blood Is Blue]

1 hour ago, CarefreeMuratcan said:

We win this and we are 3 points behind Liverpool just before they host City. So so important to win and then get ourselves in the "that which must not be named" discussion. 

The fact we’re even in a position to have this kind of thought/comment/conversation shows how much we’ve improved. It obviously helps that Man City and Arsenal haven’t been as good this year, but we’re still the best of the rest as it stands.

[CarefreeMuratcan]

On 23/11/2024 at 19:31, Blue Moon said:

Never underestimate Pep

Although on the other hand...

[Blue Moon]

Does anyone know a pub near Lyminge, Kent, showing the match? Ideally not too scruffy … Mrs BM has arranged a surprise long weekend, and didn’t check my diary … (slaps forehead) …

[CarefreeMuratcan]

I just realised that for CL teams that play (away?) on a Wednesday, their Saturday 1230pm game gets rearranged to Saturday night 8pm kick off (Liverpool vs Villa from a few weeks ago).

But for a Conference team that plays on a Thursday, our Sunday 1330 game stays the same?

Funnily enough the next situation of this, our Brentford game is a Sunday 7pm kick off.

A case of Sky Sports not being amicable about changing their SUPER SUNDAY slot, whereas TNT have been amenable about changing their 1230pm slot.

 

[Miguelito07]

19 minutes ago, CarefreeMuratcan said:

I just realised that for CL teams that play (away?) on a Wednesday, their Saturday 1230pm game gets rearranged to Saturday night 8pm kick off (Liverpool vs Villa from a few weeks ago).

But for a Conference team that plays on a Thursday, our Sunday 1330 game stays the same?

Funnily enough the next situation of this, our Brentford game is a Sunday 7pm kick off.

A case of Sky Sports not being amicable about changing their SUPER SUNDAY slot, whereas TNT have been amenable about changing their 1230pm slot.

 

to be fair - it's really dependent on the match. The Manure and Arsenal matches were on the 4.30pm slot. 

Also, I am actually looking for forward to the Liverpool v Man City match just to see Pep scratch his eyes out (Cronnenberg style)

Edited November 27 by Miguelito07

[Chelsea_Matt]

On 23/11/2024 at 16:21, chrisb said:

Villa on a bad run at the minute, hopefully it continues into this game and we have a comfortable home win.

Got a player who hasn’t scored for 67 years?

Haven’t won for two seasons?

Then come to Charity FC at Stamford Bridge and break those unwanted records!

Chelsea FC - because charity is in our DNA!

😬😬😬

[Sciatika]

I'm not sure about a bad run. They have played Liverpool, Spurs, and Palace recently. They lost two but came back from being down against Palace. I had a look at their team, and they look pretty good to me, with decent backup off the bench. This is going to be tough.

[paulw66]

4 minutes ago, Sciatika said:

I'm not sure about a bad run. 

Last 4 league games

Drew at home to Bournemouth

Lost 4-1 at Spurs

Lost at Liverpool

Drew home to Palace.

Not sure that's a bad run?

[Sciatika]

True, but I haven't watched those games, so I have no idea about performances, nor do I remember who was available. Against Bournemouth, they drew from the last kick of the game despite having dominated with two disallowed goals, one by VAR. They seem to have been poor away to Spurs despite taking the lead. A loss at Liverpool is unsurprising, but they played well and had a possible penalty denied. Not many people get a penalty against Liverpool at Anfield. Palace is one of those sides anyone can lose to, and playing a high defensive line against them is tantamount to suicide. As I said, I am not sure how bad that run was. I am prepared to accept that it was poor. We have 2W 3D 2L in our last seven, which isn't great. But, they were Forest(H), Liverpool(A), Newcastle(H), Arsenal(H), Man Utd(A), Leicester(A), and so it does not seem so bad.

[JaneB]

Ref:   Stuart Attwell

VAR:  Michael Salisbury

 

 

[My Blood Is Blue]

Attention switches back to the league. Another big game and a tricky game, even if Villa aren’t in the best form. We’ll obviously see 11 changes from last night although Jorgensen may have given Maresca something to think about. Hopefully we’ll see Lavia back into the team ahead of Enzo for this one and then the other question is who plays in the front 4 alongside Palmer, Jackson and Madueke? Will it be Felix again? Will Neto come back in after injury? Or will Sancho get the nod?

[martin1905]

15 minutes ago, My Blood Is Blue said:

Attention switches back to the league. Another big game and a tricky game, even if Villa aren’t in the best form. We’ll obviously see 11 changes from last night although Jorgensen may have given Maresca something to think about. Hopefully we’ll see Lavia back into the team ahead of Enzo for this one and then the other question is who plays in the front 4 alongside Palmer, Jackson and Madueke? Will it be Felix again? Will Neto come back in after injury? Or will Sancho get the nod?

5 assists in 6 starts and his link up play has been excellent. He's like a number 10 playing out wide rather than a traditional winger. Has such a good eye for a pass and the ability to pull it off. Because of how he plays I think he will be equally effective from the left or right so can see it becoming him plus one other.

When everyone is fit I really want to see....

Neto Palmer Sancho

Jackson.

Can't see Sancho starting both games after being out for a while though and Felix deserves another chance after last week.

It's going to get harder and harder for Madueke to stay in this side. Hard to justify him sstarting bove Sancho, Neto or Felix.

[Sciatika]

In principle, I'd like to see changes made earlier. I know it depends on the state of the game, but it would be nice to see players given a decent amount of time to show what they can do. Against Leicester, we had subs at 81,85 and 91. Arsenal (80,82,88), and Newcastle (67,72,78). Liverpool was better (46,53,76), but still, Nkunku was given only 20 minutes, incl. ET.

[asvaberg]

With Arsenal massive win tonight, we need the same tomorrow to keep them behind us on goal difference. Chelsea 4 - Villa 0 😁

[My Blood Is Blue]

This match has got a bit bigger for us after the results so far this weekend, the downside to playing on the Sunday.

Win and we move back into the top 4, lose and we could drop down to 6th.

[martin1905]

Huge, huge game today. We win and I think it will really give us the confidence to believe we can finish in the top 4. We lose and suddenly what has been a very good start, an excellent one if we win, looks a little different. 

A win and we are 6 points above Villa, Newcastle and United. 3 above Tottenham but we play them next weekend. Assuming we beat Southampton mid week, beating Tottenham would put is in an incredibly strong position before we have a run of very winnable games. 

Not loosing to Villa and Tottenham wouldn't be disastrous, especially when you look at the upcoming fixtures for all three clubs but winning both would make us strong favourites to finish above them come the end of the season and allow us to hopefully build a bit of a gap over them during the festive period.

Lose today amd we are only 3 points from 10th. It's been so tight up until now, from 2nd to 10th being only separated  by 3 points but we got through a tricky run of games and this is the first opportunity to put a bit of daylight between us and the chasing pack. Having a 5/6 point lead is imperative as it means if we drop points we stay where we are.

I think we will learn a lot about the team today, and the manager. How far have we come, collectively as a group? How much does Maresca want it? He may be happy with a point, see not loosing as more important and he's been a little cautious in the bigger games. Does he see today as an chance to put some daylight between us and the rest? Has he got it in him? Or would he see a point as a good point?

Normally I'd say this was a 50/50 game but based on current form and us being at home, the odds are in our favour. Win today and I'd argue it's the biggest win we have had, as a football club, for quite some time. It's such an important game, at a crucial stage of the season and a huge opportunity to really solidify our champions league aspirations. 

Over to you Enzo........