Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Chelsea v Aston Villa


Chelsea v Aston Villa
Stamford Bridge
Wednesday, 26 December
Kick-off: 1300 GMT


Chelsea's third-choice goalkeeper Hilario could start, with Petr Cech and Carlo Cudicini both out injured.
Cech is suffering from bruising picked up in Sunday's win at Blackburn while Cudicini is out with a rib injury.
Aston Villa midfielder Stiliyan Petrov could be in line for a recall after making his comeback from injury as a substitute against Manchester City.
Petrov's former Celtic team-mate Shaun Maloney would be the player most likely to make way.

Chelsea (from): Cech, Hilario, Belletti, Ferreira, A Cole, Carvalho, Alex, Ben-Haim, J Cole, Lampard, Essien, Sidwell, Kalou, Shevchenko, Mikel, Sinclair, Wright-Phillips, Pizarro.
Aston Villa (from): Carson, Mellberg, Knight, Laursen, Bouma, Petrov, Reo-Coker, Barry, Young, Agbonlahor, Carew, Taylor, Moore, Maloney, Cahill, Davies, Gardner, Harewood, Osbourne, Berger, Salifou.

Cheslea manager Avram Grant on Chelsea's injury problems:"I cannot say it will be easy if we lose Cech.
"To play with so many injured for a long time, I don't like it. "It's fact, and we need to get through it as soon as possible like we have done in the last three months."
Aston Villa manager Martin O'Neill:"We've got a tough period coming up. "But this time of the year is always critical because there are so many games in quick succession. "You can recover from a poor Christmas but if you can do well it gives you an enormous spur."

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