Aston Villa sit dangerously close to the bottom three after the heavy defeat to Arsenal, whereas Chelsea need to try and win this game in order to remain in contention for a top 4 finish.

The Villans have been showing some improvement under Alex McLeish, but the team were unable to find any consistency this season and currently occupy 15th place in the Premier League standings.

The West Midlands side are going through a very rough patch at the moment, and after winning just one of their last eight games in all competitions, they are likely to have a difficult job against resurgent Chelsea.

Aston Villa remain eight points clear of the bottom three, meaning they don’t need to worry about relegation just yet, but another poor result could change everything.

Boss Alex McLeish faces a major selection headache, with Alan Hutton, Richard Dunne, Darren Bent, Fabian Delph and Charles N’Zogbia missing out through injury, whereas captain Stiliyan Petrov is doubtful through illness.

Probable starting line-up (4-3-3): Given – Lichaj, Cuellar, Collins, Warnock – Petrov, Herd, Ireland – Agbonlahor, Heskey, Albrighton.

Chelsea are doing wonders under Roberto Di Matteo and the Italian is constantly improving his chanced to get the job on permanent basis.

He helped the Blues arrive on the verge of Champions League semi-finals by masterminding victories over Napoli and Benfica, while ensuring team a place in the FA Cup semis with a win over Leicester.

However, by failing to beat Tottenham at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea remained five points adrift of the Champions League places and this is clearly a must-win game for them.

Seeing the players are high on confidence after the impressive win over Benfica, odds of 1.91 (10/11) offered by Ladbrokes on away win do look tempting.

Branislav Ivanovic remains injury doubt, meaning that Paulo Ferreira is likely to continue at right-back. Fernando Torres and Salomon Kalou should keep their places in the side after the bright performance at La Luz.

Probable starting line-up (4-2-3-1): Cech – Ferreira, Luiz, Terry, Cole – Mikel, Meireles – Ramires, Mata, Kalou – Torres.