A match preview for the encounter between Chelsea and Aston Villa.
Where: Stamford Bridge, London
When: Wednesday 21st August, 7:45 KO
Watch Live: Click here to watch live with NBC Sports.
This fixture last season served up a surprising result that at the time seemed to deem Paul Lambert’s youthful experiment a failure. However, they have since picked themselves up and moved on, though there are sure to be a few remaining ghosts from last time around.
Chelsea have a busy month ahead with the Uefa Supercup encounter with Champions League winners Bayern Munich coming up at the end of the month and boss Jose Mourinho will be expected to rotate the side to keep his troops fresh.
Juan Mata, Andre Schurrle, Demba Ba and Romelu Lukaku are all vying for a start, but David Luiz remains sidelined.
Villa will be without combative centre back Nathan Baker after he limped out of the side’s 3-1 victory over Arsenal at the weekend so Ciaran Clark will is likely to deputise.
French midfielder Yacouba Sylla will return from injury to add competition to places in the middle.
Paul Lambert has insisted that confidence is high going into the game, insisting that the squad have grown as players and men since their humbling last winter.