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Chelsea host Aston Villa this evening needing to bounce back from their woeful defeat to Arsenal on Boxing Day.

Frank Lampard was left furious after his Blues went down 3-1 at the Emirates.

 Frank Lampard's Chelsea host Aston Villa this evening
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Frank Lampard's Chelsea host Aston Villa this eveningCredit: AFP or licensors

Chelsea need to respond as they look to get their title challenge back on track.

That won’t be easy against an in-form Villa side who are a place above them with two games in hand.

Villa smashed Crystal Palace last time out.

Chelsea v Aston Villa: Confirmed line-ups

Chelsea: Mendy, Azpilicueta, Christensen, Rudiger, Chilwell, Kante, Jorginho, Mount, Pulisic, Giroud, Hudson-Odoi.

Subs: Arrizabalaga, Thiago Silva, Abraham, Werner, Tomori, Kovacic, Gilmour, Havertz, Emerson Palmieri.

Aston Villa: Martinez, Cash, Hause, Konsa, Targett, Douglas Luiz, McGinn, Traore, Grealish, El Ghazi, Watkins.

Subs: Heaton, Taylor, Hourihane, Nakamba, Engels, Guilbert, Elmohamady, Davis, Ramsey.

Referee: Stuart Attwell

Chelsea v Aston Villa: How to listen

This match will get under way at 5:30pm on Monday, December 28.

Full coverage from Stamford Bridge will be exclusively live on talkSPORT, with our coverage starting at 5pm.

Faye Carruthers will be your host and commentary will from from Nigel Adderley and Dean Ashton.

To tune in, click the radio player below or HERE for the live stream.

Here are the other ways to listen...

App iPhone – Download from the Apple store

Android – Download from Google Play

Radio - talkSPORT is available across the United Kingdom via DAB digital radio and on 1089 or 1053 AM.

TV - Listen to talkSPORT through your TV on the following channels: Sky: Channel 0108 Virgin Media: Channel 927 Freeview: Channel 723 Freesat: Channel 731

Andy Jacobs' scathing rant on Chelsea's Kai Havertz and Timo Werner - Havertz is 'Ozil Lite' and Werner must need glasses because he can't make a two yard pass!

Chelsea v Aston Villa: What has been said?

Chelsea boss Frank Lampard: "There will be some changes and I knew that anyway.

"I'm certainly not going to bang the drum about the turnaround after our performance (at Arsenal). It's not the important point.

"But to play two games in two days we have to make changes anyway. Some of them will happen now because of how the game went and people will have to come in and inject the energy and the personality of our normal performances.

"The reason we went so many games unbeaten was because of that, so we've come off that and we must come back on it quickly. Some of it is maybe where we are at as a squad."

Lampard added: "People wanted to talk us up as title contenders - I never accepted that was the case because we are not there.

“That takes time to build and days like Boxing Day are certainly ones that we have to learn a big lesson from - everybody, myself included, because when I see that in the first half I don't like it so it can't happen.

"I learn about the players and the players have to learn about themselves. Some of them are young and some of them are new to the Premier League and these tough times are things that we will have to go through.

"I don't think this season was ever going to be a plain sailing, winning every week. We got confident and we got into a position where we were not losing games and winning a lot of games."

 Aston Villa have been impressive in recent weeks
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Aston Villa have been impressive in recent weeksCredit: AFP

Chelsea v Aston Villa: Match stats and facts

  • Chelsea have won 10 of their last 11 Premier League games against Aston Villa (L1), including their last six in a row. They’ve netted 31 goals in that run, conceding just eight in return.
  • Aston Villa haven’t kept a clean sheet in any of their last 19 Premier League away games against Chelsea (W2 D3 L14) since a 1-0 win in March 1998.
  • Aston Villa have won two of their three Premier League games in London this season, though their only defeat on the road this term came in the capital (1-2 vs West Ham). Only in 1992-93 (3), 1995-96 (3) and 2008-09 (3) have the Villans won more Premier League games in London in a single campaign.
  • Chelsea have lost their final league game in just one of the last 17 calendar years (W12 D4), though that was their last home league loss against Aston Villa (1-3 in 2011).
  • Aston Villa have won their final league game in just one of their last eight calendar years (D4 L3), winning 1-0 at Middlesbrough in 2017. Their last such Premier League victory was in 2011, in a 3-1 victory against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
  • Chelsea have lost just one of their last 13 Premier League home games (W10 D2), going down 0-2 against Liverpool earlier this season. When scoring at least once, the Blues have lost just one of their last 39 Premier League games at Stamford Bridge (1-2 vs Liverpool in September 2019).
  • Aston Villa have kept more clean sheets than any other Premier League side this season (8). The Villans are looking to record five consecutive top-flight shutouts for the first time since September 1998 under John Gregory.
  • Aston Villa have won five of their six Premier League away games this season (L1), last winning more in a single top-flight campaign in 2009-10 (9).
  • Chelsea striker Olivier Giroud has scored in each of his last six Premier League appearances against Aston Villa, netting eight goals in total in this run. Against no side has the Frenchman scored more Premier League goals than he has vs the Villans (8).
  • Aston Villa’s Anwar El-Ghazi has scored four goals in his last four Premier League games, as many as he had in his first 37 appearances in the competition.
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