Chelsea

Chelsea looks to keep pace with the top clubs in the Premier League with a Sunday contest against Aston Villa at Villa Park in Birmingham.

The Premier League showdown between Chelsea and Aston Villa is set to kick off at 9 a.m. Aston Villa has been stout defensively, but is tied for the second-fewest goals in the Premier League with seven tallies in nine matches. Chelsea has won three straight matches since the turn of September and looks to make it four in a row as a heavy favorite over Aston Villa.

Chelsea beat Aston Villa 2-0 at Villa Park on Sunday as Graham Potter made it five wins on the trot in all competitions and remain unbeaten as Blues boss.

Losing to Man United was a blip but the Europa League schedule is asking a lot of the first-place Gunners. Manchester City’s Erling Haaland is on track to score 63 Premier League goals this season (the record in a 38-game campaign is 32) and he has 20 goals in 13 games in all competitions. Jesse Marsch told Arsenal to have the ball, mostly, and Leeds set up with a clear plan of what to do when it got it. At the other end Ederson has the most clean sheets (five) in the Premier League as Nathan Ake and Manuel Akanji have both stepped in and looked very good in defense. Haaland had a couple of opportunities towards the end of the half but Liverpool were solid enough and looked a threat on the break. City are five games unbeaten against Liverpool and are unbeaten in their last 22 PL away matches and haven’t lost in the league in almost eight months. However, Firmino has scored eight goals in 12 games this season and has six goals in the PL. This was a crucial battle in the game and Van Dijk and Gomez won it for Liverpool. In the end one mistake from Cancelo cost them and a draw was a fair result, but City overcomplicated things in a big game and paid the price. Mohamed Salah: Played in a more central role and got the all-important goal. Kante has won the PL (twice), the Champions League and the World Cup (plus the FA Cup and Europa League) all in the last eight seasons of his brilliant career, but he is now 31 years old and will be out of contract in the summer. Mount is back to his best: Two goals and three assists in his last three games for Chelsea prove that Mount is getting back to his best and the English playmaker suits Potter’s style of play very well.

Chelsea boss Graham Potter was full of praise for goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga for his stellar performance in the 2-0 win at Aston Villa.

"It's a collective desire to do the ugly stuff in the game. "If the players can replicate the first hour moving forward they won't have an issue. "I heard a group singing from the Holte End, I'm aware of it all. "We were better in the second half, more stable. We lost our way a little bit and we needed Kepa to make some fantastic saves," he said. Kepa found a fantastic level, he made brilliant saves which kept us in the game.

Mason Mount and Kepa Arrizabalaga were Chelsea's stars as they helped to maintain Graham Potter's unbeaten start in the Premier League with a 2-0 win over ...

It looked a certain goal as the striker got between Silva and Trevoh Chalobah but Kepa stuck out an arm to brilliantly turn the header over. He then recovered to brilliantly save from Ings, although the striker was flagged offside. Ramsey hardly covered himself in glory as he allowed Ben Chilwell to get past him and a half-hearted tackle only helped the ball loop toward Mings.

A moment of quality from Guro Reiten saw the Chelsea winger swing the ball into Pernille Harder who headed past Courtney Brosnan to gain the lead. Despite the ...

Allows monitoring of the effectiveness of the ads and make the ads more relevant to the user. Collects anonymous data and monitors how users navigate and interact with the Site and Services of real-time information networking platform Twitter, Inc.. Facilitates the display of TripAdvisor "widgets", payment of referral fees and the tracking of users who view their "widgets" and use their site. Contains a unique code to determine which advertisements have been shown on a device, on behalf of Google Inc.

A brace from Pernille Harder and a stoppage-time strike from Niamh Charles secured an important 3-1 victory for Chelsea against Everton in the Women's Super ...

A corner from the left resulted in a scramble inside the box, which saw the ball deflect off Buchanan and beyond Berger to level the scores at 1-1. The Blues needed to dig deep, show character and discipline with a slender lead intact and plenty of time still remaining. With 15 minutes remaining, the Blues made a double change with Bethany England and Charles replacing Reiten and Kerr. There were some nerves creeping in amongst the Blues faithful when the fourth official indicated a minimum of seven minutes added time, meaning ultimate concentration and discipline was required. We began to see more of the ball and created chances to extend the lead. Their momentum was halted momentarily with a pause in play for Buchanan to receive some treatment, but the defender was fine to continue. The hosts worked to force Chelsea to retreat into their defensive shape and that pressure amounted to an equaliser on 52 minutes. After taking the lead, the Blues began to play with more confidence and composure. On 35 minutes, James came closest to breaking the deadlock when her left-footed strike was deflected onto the crossbar as we began to ask more questions of the Everton defence. Moments later, we had the ball in the net when Kerr tucked home from close-range, only for the offside flag to deny her. In our first game back after the international break, Everton were quickest to settle into the match. Chelsea’s first half chance arrived with five minutes played when Harder curled an effort from the edge of the box that was comfortably gathered by Courtney Brosnan in the Everton goal.

Long after the rest of the Chelsea players had filed back towards the Villa Park tunnel, Kepa Arrizabalaga stood alone in front of the travelling supporters ...

[Aston Villa](https://theathletic.com/football/team/aston-villa/) peppered the Chelsea goal. There were six shots on target during that time requiring six saves, equalling the previous highest number the Spaniard had made without conceding in his [Premier League](https://theathletic.com/football/premier-league/) career. [Edouard Mendy](https://theathletic.com/football/player/edouard-mendy-MXFR7X2FToq4Yagb/) a chance to reverse the situation.

Rio Ferdinand has revealed the time that he nearly joined Chelsea before becoming the most expensive defender in the world.

I went back in, hit the ground running and then that November I went to Leeds." "That summer I went on holiday, I got back and I trained before we even went back to pre-season. "And I said, 'listen, with all due respect, thank you but I need to leave London because I was getting a lot of trouble off the pitch. [Mirror](https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/rio-ferdinand-reveals-chelsea-transfer-23963679), Ferdinand revealed the moment when he realised that he was beginning to be engulfed by the London nightlife. And, funnily, I was getting to the meeting to go and meet Leeds, Chelsea rang and said, 'we'll match whatever Leeds are offering. Ferdinand said: "I was out shopping with my dad and then the phone goes.

Chelsea news: Dujon Sterling is again showcasing his talent on loan in the Championship, offering Graham Potter a future solution to Reece James concerns.

“It also gives my teammates confidence that no matter where I am on the pitch, they can give me the ball and trust me.” Dujon Sterling is gaining praise for his performances in the Championship on loan with Stoke City. Sterling was briefly involved in Chelsea's pre-season preparations at Cobham before it became clear under Thomas Tuchel that another loan would prove beneficial. [spoke to Sterling last season](https://www.football.london/chelsea-fc/news/dujon-sterling-chelsea-motivation-career-23468413) during his time at Blackpool and how his versatility has allowed him to quickly gain trust. [injury to Reece James](https://www.football.london/chelsea-fc/news/james-silva-kante-chelsea-injury-25278311) that will keep him out until after the World Cup in Qatar, concerns over backup in that area for [Graham Potter](https://www.football.london/chelsea-fc/news/potter-james-mount-kepa-silva-25277281) have again become a topic of conversation amongst supporters. "Very, very few people get past him.

The former military analyst has been called both a hero and a traitor for leaking classified information about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

It was a very strange part of the process because that was like the one point in which my lawyers and I had a very strong disagreement about the presentation of this. And all of the things that were favorable to the defense were in closed court-martial. And one of the most troubling things that I encountered was this notion that it wasn't just the enemy that was predictable. So it was a very uncomfortable and very frustrating part of the court-martial process. ... It was always funny because the things that ended up being brought up in court were always favorable to the government. They wanted me to add these things that they call a "stipulation of facts," which is essentially a document that says that both parties agree that these are factual, that these were facts, and they wanted me to lie. One of the most frustrating things of the plea agreement process was that they essentially wanted me to perjure myself. I remember very distinctly that there was this little sign inside of it that said, "built in Fort Wayne, Indiana." And then the reaction, the secondary reaction, the second and third order effects of that, and it painted this picture of a feedback loop where it was pretty clear that our reactions to the actions were causing things to get progressively worse. Manning expected to lose her job and maybe her career because of the leaks. "I wanted that discrepancy to be addressed somehow." [Chelsea Manning ](https://www.npr.org/tags/214589939/chelsea-manning)provided hundreds of thousands of military and diplomatic records about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to [WikiLeaks](https://www.npr.org/tags/126916674/wikileaks) in what's regarded as the [largest leak](https://www.npr.org/2012/02/03/146377661/army-to-try-bradley-manning-in-wikileaks-data-case) of classified records in U.S.

football.london takes a look at Chelsea's players who are out on loan over the last week.

Ethan Wady - Was on the bench for Woking as they qualified for the FA Cup with a victory over Southend United. Hull's Andy Dawson said: "He's down at Chelsea at the moment, they're assessing him, and hopefully, in the next week or two, he'll be back here. The Chelsea loanee was helpless as he headed into position, and goalkeeper Alexander Nubel looked to fizz a pass to Caio Henrique. Jamie Cumming - The young goalkeeper was in net for consecutive defeats for MK Dons as they fell to Bristol Rovers and Plymouth Argyle. The ball smashed off Sarr's thigh and headed into the net to open the scoring. He will be unavailable for the game against Nottingham Forest on Tuesday night. Nathan Baxter - The goalkeeper put in a steady performance but could not prevent Birmingham from netting twice against Hull as the Tigers' difficult start to the season continued. Stoke boss Alex Neil said: "Dujon, for me, is arguably one of the best one-v-one defenders I've ever seen. He produced a Malang Sarr - The French defender was involved in a bizarre own goal as Monaco fell 4-0 to Trabzonspor. He'll play at a really high level. "He'll have a really good career, Jamie.

The midfielder scored two goals against Aston Villa in the Premier League.

"Last season when I scored my first goal I got two others in the game, and now I’ve got two. And the most important thing is that as a team we’ve been winning." I’m mentally strong, I stuck at it, and eventually in my head I’m thinking they’re going to come. [Tyrone Mings Blunder Helps Seal Chelsea's 2-0 Victory Over Aston Villa](https://www.si.com/soccer/chelsea/soccer/chelsea/match-coverage/tyrone-mings-blunder-helps-seal-chelseas-2-0-victory-over-aston-villa) [Chelsea Defender Reece James Doubt For World Cup Despite Injury Boost](https://www.si.com/soccer/chelsea/news/chelsea-defender-reece-james-doubt-for-world-cup-despite-injury-boost) [Report: Chelsea Will Look At Tottenham Hotspur's Harry Kane](https://www.si.com/soccer/chelsea/transfer-news/report-chelsea-will-look-at-tottenham-hotspurs-harry-kane) [Report: Ruben Loftus-Cheek Could Be A Target For AC Milan In January](https://www.si.com/soccer/chelsea/transfer-news/report-ruben-loftus-cheek-could-be-a-target-for-ac-milan-in-january) [Report: Kepa Arrizabalaga Was Close To Joining Napoli This Summer](https://www.si.com/soccer/chelsea/transfer-news/report-kepa-arrizabalaga-was-close-to-joining-napoli-this-summer) [Report: Premier League Set To Stage A Pre-Season Tournament In The USA](https://www.si.com/soccer/chelsea/news/report-premier-league-set-to-stage-a-pre-season-tournament-in-the-usa) [Report: Thiago Silva's Wife Confirms Plans To Stay At Chelsea](https://www.si.com/soccer/chelsea/transfer-news/report-thiago-silvas-wife-confirms-plans-to-stay-at-chelsea) [Report: Romelu Lukaku Will Not Return To Chelsea In January](https://www.si.com/soccer/chelsea/transfer-news/report-romelu-lukaku-will-not-return-to-chelsea-in-january) But, as he told the "You never want to start the season without scoring for that long, but it happened to me last season (11 games in), so I know how to deal with it," Mount said.

Brentford vs Chelsea Predictions: Premier League Matchweek 12 Match Odds & Best Bets · Matthew Williams' 2022-23 EPL Betting Record: 37-21 (+32.1 units) · 3-way ...

Chelsea (-140) Under 2.5 (-110) Get up to $1,000 Risk-Free when you create a new player account or use promo code [GOAL1000](https://mediaserver.betmgmpartners.com/renderBanner.do?zoneId=1670632). Draw (+280) As mentioned above, the absence of James and Fofana will continue to make things challenging for Chelsea on the defensive side. Toney has been outstanding this season, scoring eight goals with two assists over 10 matches. Just don’t expect a clean sheet in this one due to the Blues depleted defense. Chelsea have been a different club under Graham Potter offensively. It would not be a surprise to see a higher-scoring match with Reece James and Wesley Fofana still missing from the Blues' defense. Chelsea are now 6-1-2 and have been victorious in each of their previous five matches. Can the Blues keep their hot streak going against Brentford? Ivan Toney secured a brace, including a fantastic backheel finish during the victory.

Graham Potter has enjoyed a near-perfect start to life at Stamford Bridge and can ...

LM: Raheem Sterling - Still yet to really find his feet at Chelsea, Sterling has played a handful of roles under Potter. He deserves to continue in the team. His willingness to stay back could help calm things down in defence.