Aston Villa vs Chelsea LIVE: Premier League team news and line-ups as Rashford is benched while Asensio starts – UK Times

What started off as a brilliant campaign for the Blues has quickly tailed off into a mixed run of form that has seen them drop out of both domestic cup competitions as well as the Premier League top four.

Nevertheless, their form in Europe has been imperious, with Enzo Maresca’s side winning all six of their league phase games and scoring 26 goals in the process.

They are overwhelming favourites to win the third-tier tournament and would become the first side to triumph in all three of Uefa’s main competitions should they do so. A place in next season’s Europa League is also up for grabs as added incentive.

Aston Villa failed to win any of their four meetings with Chelsea in 2024, drawing two and losing two of those league and cup fixtures.

The Blues have won 13 Premier League games at Villa Park, only winning more at Southampton and Tottenham, where they have 15 and 16 victories respectively.

Maresca has made just one change to the side that lost 3-0 to Brighton last week, with Reece James returning in place of the injured Noni Madueke.

It looks like the Blues are setting up in a back five of some sort, with Malo Gusto and Marc Cucurella as the wing-backs.

Unai Emery has made four changes to the side that drew 2-2 to Liverpool last week.

Three changes are in defence, with Matty Cash and Ezri Konsa returning from injury to replace Andres Garcia and Axel Disasi. In addition, Ian Maatsen comes in for Lucas Digne at left-back.

In the forward line, Marcus Rashford drops out in favour of Jacob Ramsey.

Aston Villa XI: Martinez; Cash, Konsa, Mings, Maatsen; McGinn, Tielemans; Rogers, Asensio, Ramsey; Watkins.

Subs: Olsen, Zych, Digne, Garcia, Bogarde, Bailey, Malen, Rashford, Jimoh-Aloba.

Chelsea XI: Jorgensen; Gusto, James, Chalobah, Colwill, Cucurella; Caicedo, Fernandez; Palmer, Neto; Nkunku.

Subs: Sanchez, Acheampong, Tosin, Samuels-Smith, Amougou, Dewsbury-Hall, Sancho, George, Mhueka.

The line-ups should be announced in the next five minutes, so here’s a recap of the early team news.

For Villa, Axel Disasi is unavailable to face his parent club, so Lamare Bogarde may provide cover, though Emery did say that Ezri Konsa could be fit enough to return to the squad.

Ross Barkley is also nearing a return, though this match could come a week too early, while Leon Bailey should be fit for this game.

Amadou Onana is still a couple of weeks away from a return, as is Boubacar Kamara, while Pau Torres is expected to start training again in a couple of weeks.

Enzo Maresca had one new injury concern after the loss to Brighton, with Noni Madueke being forced off in that match. He will likely miss a few weeks with a hamstring issue.

While Malo Gusto was also subbed in that loss, Maresca later said he was okay, so he should be fit.

Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca called an all-staff meeting in the club’s canteen to impress upon his struggling side the work being done for them behind the scenes.

“There are many people behind the scenes that work every day. I said to the players in that meeting, when I arrive here every morning at seven there are people from the kitchen cutting fruit. There are people behind you that you cannot see that are working every day to help you reach the target.

“I tried to convince them that there are people behind them working hard and we need to push all together.

“Kitchen people, groundsmen, kitmen. I asked them to push until the end because our target is to bring this club in the Champions League.”

Villa were drawn against Club Brugge in the Champions League last 16 and Unai Emery is hoping for revenge after they were beaten 1-0 in Belgium in the league phase.

“Happy we are in the last 16 and happy with the draw, but every team that are in the last 16, they deserve to be there,” Emery said.

“Of course, we played against Brugge and we knew their capacity to compete like they are doing usually. They beat Atalanta as well.

“Losing there 1-0, of course, is good information for us, how we have to compete, to respect, to prepare, to try to avoid the mistakes we made.

“But really happy, because we are going to enjoy this moment with our supporters, and we are going to compete when it’s arriving, but now we have to focus (on) Chelsea.”

Ollie Watkins believes the arrival of Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio to Aston Villa will pay big dividends.

Watkins scored his 12th Premier League goal of the season in Wednesday’s 2-2 draw with Liverpool – a game in which Rashford and Asensio made their first starts, after arriving in January.

The pair have added an extra dimension to Villa’s attack in recent matches and Watkins is looking forward to cashing in.

“It is nice playing with quality players and I am sure in the future games I will get more opportunities,” he said after the match.

“They haven’t had that long to show what they can do and they are still finding their feet.

“When they get a few games under their belt I am sure it will flow and connect together nicely.”

Enzo Maresca is enduring the toughest spell of his tenure with the team on a run of two wins from nine in the league, having been second and two points off the summit on December 22.

The performance in losing 3-0 to Brighton last time out was one of their poorest of the campaign and left them trailing fourth-placed Manchester City by a point.

“I’ve been clear since day one,” said Maresca. “I’m not here to survive, I’m here to win games. I’m here to bring this club to fight for titles.

“The problem is that when you win games you look humble, and when you don’t win you look like a lack of ambition.

“I’m ambitious. The club is ambitious. We have the same manager and same players and same sporting director as two months ago when we were second in the league.

“Nothing has changed, only unfortunately that we are dealing with many injuries. This has affected the level of the team.”