Chelsea face Aston Villa at the Villa Park and despite the Blues being firm favourites to win the game, Villa could have a say as they have a good record against Jose Mourinho at home.
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho spoke to the media ahead of their clash against Villa and had positive news regarding the availability of the players. Mourinho confirmed that left-back Filipe Luis is the only player that will miss out through injury and Diego Costa will be absent as he’ll be serving the second game of his three-match ban.
The Portuguese said, “Filipe Luis is injured and the player who is suspended [Diego Costa] is still suspended. Everybody else is fit.”
There have been reports that new signing Juan Cuadrado could make his debut against Villa, but it’s highly unlikely that he’ll start the game after Mourinho revealed that the Colombian has only trained with the team for a couple of sessions, “He fits into the Colombia national team and also Chelsea Football Club. Hea s trained two days, he had the business situation until the last minute on Monday, on Tuesday he had to go to Paris for a visa, so hea s only trained twice.”
Midfielder Cesc Fabregas is expected to start after missing out last week in Chelsea’s clash against Manchester City. He is expected to play alongside Nemanja Matic in midfield. Costa’s absence will mean that either Didier Drogba or Loic Remy will get their chance. Remy is favourite to start after putting in a good shift against Manchester City last weekend.
Kurt Zouma has started ahead of Gary Cahill in the last two games and could once again get the nod ahead of the England international after having impressed in the previous games. Mourinho joked that he is similar to Raphael Varane and that the French Football Federation should perhaps thank him for developing both of them, “The French Football Federation should write me a letter of thanks because they have two of the best young defenders in the world.
“As young defenders, can you imagine what Zouma and Varane will represent in football in the next couple of years? Ia m sure Didier [Deschamps] is very happy,” he added.
For Aston Villa, club captain Ron Vlaar could return after Paul Lambert admitted that he’ll have to see if the Dutchman can be in the squad if not start, a Hea s trained this week and if he comes through tomorrow [today] he’ll be in the squad.”