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Chelsea vs Aston Villa (PL) Saturday 27th December 17:30 GMT

axman2526

axman2526

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Match day thread for the Premier League match vs Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge.

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The one surely obvious thing is James at full back and bench Gusto. That means Enzo comes back in although I'd rather it was Santos. Enzo will fluff his lines against an average but wholehearted McGinn.

I would play Acheampong instead of Chalobah but I don't expect that will remotely be in Maresca's mind.

The other problem is left wing. Neither Garnacho or Gittens are remotely good enough so do we try something different or stick with one of them as a bit of a wasted pick.

Not sure of the extent of Estevao's situation. If he is available I'd be tempted to pick Neto and Estevao with Neto probably moving to the left hand side.

 
The one surely obvious thing is James at full back and bench Gusto. That means Enzo comes back in although I'd rather it was Santos. Enzo will fluff his lines against an average but wholehearted McGinn.

I would play Acheampong instead of Chalobah but I don't expect that will remotely be in Maresca's mind.

The other problem is left wing. Neither Garnacho or Gittens are remotely good enough so do we try something different or stick with one of them as a bit of a wasted pick.

Not sure of the extent of Estevao's situation. If he is available I'd be tempted to pick Neto and Estevao with Neto probably moving to the left hand side.
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Enzo usually is up for it vs Villa. Not sure why he has it on for them but his best seems to be delivered vs them.

Fofana cannot play on the left of defence and am not sure if Josh is trusted there either, but he both deserves game time and needs it.

I'd have Neto go to the left, Palmer right and Enzo in the 10. Have sub Garnacho which is sometimes useful vs starter garnacho who is mostly useless.

Sanchez

James

Acheampong

Chalobah

Cucurella

Caicedo

Santos

Palmer

Enzo

Neto

Joao Pedro

 
That's a fair point about who plays as left sided centre half. In fairness Chalobah and Fofana haven't been that bad a central pairing but there is a always a bit of a whiff of a howler in one of them. Acheampong still very young but my gut tells me he is a quality player in the making and I fear if we don't give him reasonable game time we will lose him and regret it later.

 
So help me f**king god if I see either Tosin or Badiashile in the XI I’m buying a plane ticket and egging Maresca’s bald head.
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You know if you would actually follow through with that it would be worth the slapping we would get from Villa to see this happen.

 
Villa's 11th win in 12 PL games, with 9 of those wins by a single goal ... an efficient points-gathering machine indeed!

They actually have a quite remarkable points haul this season when compared to their xPts metric, which would have them in 16th position in the table not 3rd! We are currently 10th on xPts, mainly due to conceding far fewer goals than we statistically should (take a bow Sanchez). This underlines how underwhelming our underlying performances have been in spite of our 4th place in the table.

From Understat:

image.png

 
Villa's 11th win in 12 PL games, with 9 of those wins by a single goal ... an efficient points-gathering machine indeed!

They actually have a quite remarkable points haul this season when compared to their xPts metric, which would have them in 16th position in the table not 3rd! We are currently 10th on xPts, mainly due to conceding far fewer goals than we statistically should (take a bow Sanchez). This underlines how underwhelming our underlying performances have been in spite of our 4th place in the table.

From Understat:

View attachment 37437
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And that is the sort of standard we used to hold ourselves to.

Not anymore though. Now many of our lot gas up home draws with Arsenal and away ones to the toon as some sort of moral victory as they suckle kool-aid from the BlueCo teet.

No standards.

 
^ That is absolutely not a good thing. Those numbers very strongly suggest their form will come crashing down to earth sooner rather than later.

On the other hand, as my guru says (usually while holding a fag and a beer), "listen matey, you can't achieve anything in the life without a bit of the lady luck". While he may not understand definite articles he does possess a deeper understanding about how the life works. So maybe you can build a title/CL challenge around Morgan Rogers winning games from 0.05xG belters.

 
^ That is absolutely not a good thing. Those numbers very strongly suggest their form will come crashing down to earth sooner rather than later.

On the other hand, as my guru says (usually while holding a fag and a beer), "listen matey, you can't achieve anything in the life without a bit of the lady luck". While he may not understand definite articles he does possess a deeper understanding about how the life works. So maybe you can build a title/CL challenge around Morgan Rogers winning games from 0.05xG belters.
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That's my take as well Ploks.

I see this match as the Battle of the Overachievers 😎

 
Pretty much a must win. We should be up for it and I get the feeling we might see a version of prime Palmer. Up against his best mate who’s threatening to steal his thunder and England place.

Should be a decent game.

 
Heh just seen Rogers goals vs United. He uses coles celebration.

Over to you Cole.

 
Pretty much a must win. We should be up for it and I get the feeling we might see a version of prime Palmer. Up against his best mate who’s threatening to steal his thunder and England place.

Should be a decent game.
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Prime Palmer probably needs to show up for the next 4-5 months to get a seat on the plane next summer. Tuchel has more potential 10’s than he needs and Rogers is staking the best claim to the starting spot.

 
Prime Palmer probably needs to show up for the next 4-5 months to get a seat on the plane next summer. Tuchel has more potential 10’s than he needs and Rogers is staking the best claim to the starting spot.
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/favicon.ico?v=2Mail Online
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The two England players Tuchel voted for in FIFA's The Be...Captains, managers, media, and fans were presented with a list of 11 stars from which to choose their top three and they were the only two England names on that list.
Thomas Tuchel voted for two England stars as his standout players of 2025 in the recent The Best FIFA Awards.

The Three Lions boss believed that Harry Kane and Cole Palmer were the best players in the world ahead of eventual winner Ousmane Dembele.

Captains, managers, media, and fans were presented with a list of 11 stars from which to choose their top three and they were the only two England names on that list.

I don't think we need to worry, Tuchel knows class when he sees it.

 
Prime Palmer probably needs to show up for the next 4-5 months to get a seat on the plane next summer. Tuchel has more potential 10’s than he needs and Rogers is staking the best claim to the starting spot.
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Cole is a better RW anyway

 
So maybe you can build a title/CL challenge around Morgan Rogers winning games from 0.05xG belters.
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If Rogers continue to do this, Villas is a legit contender.

 
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