Aston Villa vs Chelsea pre match - March 4th 7.30pm

[TheToffnar]

He absolutely starts for me, irrespective of his performance against Wolves. There will be so much space to exploit, especially as they're likely to have the lions share of possession.

[brontebilly]

On team selection: Don't pick Torres! He's the weak link at the back. Mings or Lindelof are proper leaders. Start Maatsen, and certainly Tammy. Go at Chelsea on the front foot. They drew with Leeds and Burnley at home recently, despite being in the lead.

Didn’t Torres start basically all of our winning run?

Yes, but don't forget Torres had a midfield of Kamara, McGinn and Tielemans in front of him, plus Onana! The midfield is simply far weaker now.....

Those players were all available and playing (for the most part) at the start of the season, when we couldn't buy a win. Our run of form began five minutes after Pau replaced Mings half an hour in against Fulham, when Ollie equalised. He was then in the side for the months of wins that followed.

Obviously it's more complicated than that and Pau certainly isn't without his flaws but calling him the weak link is just daft.

Torres isn't playing particularly well with or without the ball of late. It probably points to structural issues further up the pitch. Opponents are covering the space in the middle for his passes where once Buendia and Rogers were thriving. Leaving Maatsen out hurt us v Wolves as Digne simply can't or won't push forward any more. That out ball down the left wasn't on.

It's a real stick or twist decision for Chelsea with Mings or Torres. I'd go with Lindelof but that's the most unlikely decision I suspect. Cash aside, I thought our defence was rubbish v Wolves as it was v Leeds. That's against very limited forwards too.

[Holte L2]

                                 Martinez

          Cash          Konsa     Pau       Maatsen


                  Bogarde              Onana

      Alysson                Luiz                   Rogers


                              Abraham

Please Unai!

[malckennedy]

                                 Martinez

          Cash          Konsa     Pau       Maatsen


                  Bogarde              Onana

      Alysson                Luiz                   Rogers


                              Abraham

Please Unai!

I’d like that team to start. Don’t think it will though.

[Dave]

Torres isn't playing particularly well with or without the ball of late.

He's not, but then nobody is really.

But given our bigger issue is creating and scoring goals rather than leaking them (Friday notwithstanding) it still feels more like the solution to that problem is helped (not solved) by Pau being there over the alternatives.

[brontebilly]

Torres isn't playing particularly well with or without the ball of late.

He's not, but then nobody is really.

But given our bigger issue is creating and scoring goals rather than leaking them (Friday notwithstanding) it still feels more like the solution to that problem is helped (not solved) by Pau being there over the alternatives.

Certainly felt that way v Leeds where Mings was let have the ball. But Torres wasn't much better when he came in v Wolves. Luiz was able to get turned on the ball a good bit more to my eye than v Leeds, we only looked a competent team when that happened. To be fair to Torres and Luiz, when they look forward Buendia/Rogers/Watkins are simply not retaining possession in tight spaces. Digne doesn't offer an outlet either on that side. Just think if we shifted Rogers left it might give him more space like in the Newcastle cup game. Tammy has a better touch than Ollie too. Might make the game a bit easier for Torres and Luiz too.

I've pretty much written off the other flank until McGinn returns. Cash doesn't look fully fit to me, having to do the work of two players not helping matters.

[martyn ellis]

Let's just hope they don't get another player sent off. You know what we're like against 10 men.

[Nev]

So it all comes down to this. Well, it doesn't at all, there are and will be plenty of opportunities after this game even if we lose but it does have the feel of a pivotal game in our season. We're on a bad run and one would hope the nadir was Friday, all teams have bad runs and most come out of them. Prior to that wet performance on Friday I believed that we were more likely to win this game than in the land that time forgot. Yes, the stats and everything else indicated otherwise but sometimes, in fact quite often, the ebb and flow of football doesn't follow the script.

It's undoubtedly a big night on Wednesday, it will feel like a massive game and I sincerely hope the team respond, whatever players are selected. But I will stick with what I said a couple of hours before KO in Greater Bilston; it will be typical Villa to lose this and beat Chelsea....

2-0

[PaulWinch again]

Torres isn't playing particularly well with or without the ball of late.

He's not, but then nobody is really.

But given our bigger issue is creating and scoring goals rather than leaking them (Friday notwithstanding) it still feels more like the solution to that problem is helped (not solved) by Pau being there over the alternatives.

Agreed. You could pretty much drop everyone on the basis of the Wolves game anyway. We need as much potential creativity as we can get right now.