Chelsea's Likely Line For Aston Villa Match

Today’s game against Aston Villa will be Chelsea’s 4000th league game as well as their 2000th home league game. Coming from a 2-1 win against Bolton in the carling cup, Chelsea will be looking to extend their lead at the top of Premier League standing today as they welcome the visit of Villa. The Villans are currently third on the league table, three points behind the blues and will be hoping to avoid the fight for survival that has characterized their last two campaigns.

Except Ramires who sustained a groin injury in a tough game against Manchester City at the Etihad and Diego Costa who is apparently lacking fitness, Mourinho has no worries about his squad. Oscar is expected to replace his compatriot in the midfield while Willian should get the nod ahead of Schurrle who, despite scoring against City, was again guilty of lack of defensive concentration that led to the equaliser.

Aston Villa’s squad was hit by an illness ahead of the Arsenal game, with Baker, Bent and Westwood all missing out and Weimann forced off at half time with the sickness. Those four players should be back available, though concerns remain over the fitness of Ron Vlaar, who is still suffering with a calf injury. Christian Benteke has trained all week but is continuing to build up his fitness and unlikely to feature for another week or so.

Should we win, Mourinho will claim second place all for himself on the all-time list of career Chelsea wins. He’s currently tied with Dave Sexton on 164. Jose will also mark a quarter millennium of games in charge of the Blues (7th all-time).

Possible line-up for Chelsea: Courtois, Ivanovic, Terry, Cahil, Azpilicueta, Matic, Fabregas, Oscar, Willian, Hazard, Costa

Formation- 4 3 3

Possible line-up for Aston Villa: Guzan, Hutton, Baker, Senderos, Cissokho, Delap, Richardson, Cleverly, Westwood, Weimann, Agbonlahor Formation – 4 51.