Fourth-place Aston Villa will try to solidify their hold of a UEFA Champions League place and reverse their recent slide on Wednesday when they host sixth-place Chelsea in Birmingham.
Villa (15-7-6, 51 points) enter the midweek slate in better position despite having earned only one victory in their last five league games and scoring only four times in their last six across all competitions.
The rough patch reached a new bottom over the weekend in a 2-0 defeat at last-place Wolverhampton Wanderers, who won for only the second time this season.
And it has coincided with an extended absence for captain John McGinn, who injured his knee in a 1-0 league loss to Everton back on Jan. 18.
“We need other leaders. John McGinn, of course, is very important, but he’s not available for (Wednesday),” Villa manager Unai Emery said. “He’s progressively getting better, but we have enough players to keep our consistency, to get our performance and to feel comfortable with the players we have.
“I believe, of course, even when we are not achieving it, I continue believing in them.”
England internationals Ollie Watkins and Morgan Rogers lead the Midlands side with eight league goals apiece, but neither has scored in the last three league fixtures.
Chelsea (12-7-9, 45 points) enter the match after their own reality check, a 1-1 draw on Feb. 21 at a Burnley side that looks likely to be relegated and a 2-1 home loss to league leaders Arsenal on Sunday.
The Blues finished both matches with 10 men, after defender Wesley Fofana and forward Pedro Neto each received second bookings in those matches, and Neto will serve his one-match ban on Wednesday.
It’s the first real taste of adversity for the club since the 41-year-old Liam Rosenior took over as manager and won his first four league games, and eight of his first 11 overall.
But even though some Chelsea faces have become familiar, Rosenior stressed that it’s still an inexperienced group, with the youngest average starting 11 age in the Premier League at 23.4 years old, according to Transfermarkt.
“The beautiful thing about having a young team is that sometimes you need to go through experiences to improve,” Rosenior explained. “This is a massive learning experience for my group — and I do not want it to be an experience where we fail in what we want to achieve. But these setbacks we’re having, we have to learn from them because if we do, we have proven, even in my short time here, that we can be an elite team for a long time.”
–Field Level Media
