Key events
Team summary: Palmer starts, Luiz returns
Cole Palmer, who had enough doubts to be italicized in our predicted lineups, is no longer fit, so he starts. No sign of Raheem Sterling. In Villa, Douglas Luiz enters the field replacing Moussa Diaby.
Preamble
Good evening everyone and welcome to the last game of the day at the first division. It's fourth against ninth, and they both know what they're up against, having already faced each other three times this season.
So far the local public has had nothing to celebrate. Villa won 1-0 at Stamford Bridge in the league when an Ollie Watkins goal followed a red card for Malo Gusto. In the FA Cup, before it was 0-0 at the Bridge Chelsea They went to Villa Park and won 3-1, with a flourish, in a match that, if the FA has its way, will be the last of its kind for both teams.
That was the start of Chelsea's best run of the season, a 12-game run in which the only taste of defeat was the bitter one that came in the final minutes of the League Cup final. They are in quite a different place now, having lost narrowly to Manchester City in the FA Cup and heavily to Arsenal in the league, although, in between, they managed to beat Everton 6-0.
In the league there is nothing that separates these two teams. Since Christmas, both have won exactly half of their matches. And they both have 11 points from their last six, which (as of 5.15pm today) was enough to put them above everyone in the form table except City, Arsenal and Newcastle. Let's face it: we've reached the stage of the season where everyone is knackered and anything can happen.
Kick-off is at 8pm BST and I'll be back with the teams soon.
