Match day thread for the Premier League match vs Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge.

The one surely obvious thing is James at full back and bench Gusto. That means Enzo comes back in although I'd rather it was Santos. Enzo will fluff his lines against an average but wholehearted McGinn.

I would play Acheampong instead of Chalobah but I don't expect that will remotely be in Maresca's mind.

The other problem is left wing. Neither Garnacho or Gittens are remotely good enough so do we try something different or stick with one of them as a bit of a wasted pick.

Not sure of the extent of Estevao's situation. If he is available I'd be tempted to pick Neto and Estevao with Neto probably moving to the left hand side.

2 hours ago, loz said:

The one surely obvious thing is James at full back and bench Gusto. That means Enzo comes back in although I'd rather it was Santos. Enzo will fluff his lines against an average but wholehearted McGinn.

I would play Acheampong instead of Chalobah but I don't expect that will remotely be in Maresca's mind.

The other problem is left wing. Neither Garnacho or Gittens are remotely good enough so do we try something different or stick with one of them as a bit of a wasted pick.

Not sure of the extent of Estevao's situation. If he is available I'd be tempted to pick Neto and Estevao with Neto probably moving to the left hand side.

Enzo usually is up for it vs Villa. Not sure why he has it on for them but his best seems to be delivered vs them.

Fofana cannot play on the left of defence and am not sure if Josh is trusted there either, but he both deserves game time and needs it.

I'd have Neto go to the left, Palmer right and Enzo in the 10. Have sub Garnacho which is sometimes useful vs starter garnacho who is mostly useless.

Sanchez

James

Acheampong

Chalobah

Cucurella

Caicedo

Santos

Palmer

Enzo

Neto

Joao Pedro

That's a fair point about who plays as left sided centre half. In fairness Chalobah and Fofana haven't been that bad a central pairing but there is a always a bit of a whiff of a howler in one of them. Acheampong still very young but my gut tells me he is a quality player in the making and I fear if we don't give him reasonable game time we will lose him and regret it later.

So help me f**king god if I see either Tosin or Badiashile in the XI I’m buying a plane ticket and egging Maresca’s bald head.

1 hour ago, Sconnie Blue said:

So help me f**king god if I see either Tosin or Badiashile in the XI I’m buying a plane ticket and egging Maresca’s bald head.

You know if you would actually follow through with that it would be worth the slapping we would get from Villa to see this happen.

Morgan Rogers is in some form.

Hopefully He hits the turkey hard over Christmas...

Villa's 11th win in 12 PL games, with 9 of those wins by a single goal ... an efficient points-gathering machine indeed!

They actually have a quite remarkable points haul this season when compared to their xPts metric, which would have them in 16th position in the table not 3rd! We are currently 10th on xPts, mainly due to conceding far fewer goals than we statistically should (take a bow Sanchez). This underlines how underwhelming our underlying performances have been in spite of our 4th place in the table.

From Understat:

57 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

Villa's 11th win in 12 PL games, with 9 of those wins by a single goal ... an efficient points-gathering machine indeed!

They actually have a quite remarkable points haul this season when compared to their xPts metric, which would have them in 16th position in the table not 3rd! We are currently 10th on xPts, mainly due to conceding far fewer goals than we statistically should (take a bow Sanchez). This underlines how underwhelming our underlying performances have been in spite of our 4th place in the table.

From Understat:

And that is the sort of standard we used to hold ourselves to.

Not anymore though. Now many of our lot gas up home draws with Arsenal and away ones to the toon as some sort of moral victory as they suckle kool-aid from the BlueCo teet.

No standards.

^ That is absolutely not a good thing. Those numbers very strongly suggest their form will come crashing down to earth sooner rather than later.

On the other hand, as my guru says (usually while holding a fag and a beer), "listen matey, you can't achieve anything in the life without a bit of the lady luck". While he may not understand definite articles he does possess a deeper understanding about how the life works. So maybe you can build a title/CL challenge around Morgan Rogers winning games from 0.05xG belters.

1 hour ago, PloKoon13 said:

^ That is absolutely not a good thing. Those numbers very strongly suggest their form will come crashing down to earth sooner rather than later.

On the other hand, as my guru says (usually while holding a fag and a beer), "listen matey, you can't achieve anything in the life without a bit of the lady luck". While he may not understand definite articles he does possess a deeper understanding about how the life works. So maybe you can build a title/CL challenge around Morgan Rogers winning games from 0.05xG belters.

That's my take as well Ploks.

I see this match as the Battle of the Overachievers 😎

Pretty much a must win. We should be up for it and I get the feeling we might see a version of prime Palmer. Up against his best mate who’s threatening to steal his thunder and England place.

Should be a decent game.

Heh just seen Rogers goals vs United. He uses coles celebration.

Over to you Cole.

1 hour ago, axman2526 said:

Heh just seen Rogers goals vs United. He uses coles celebration.

Over to you Cole.

To be fair to Rogers, it was his celebration first.

14 hours ago, 19seventyone said:

Pretty much a must win. We should be up for it and I get the feeling we might see a version of prime Palmer. Up against his best mate who’s threatening to steal his thunder and England place.

Should be a decent game.

Prime Palmer probably needs to show up for the next 4-5 months to get a seat on the plane next summer. Tuchel has more potential 10’s than he needs and Rogers is staking the best claim to the starting spot.

36 minutes ago, BS66 said:

Prime Palmer probably needs to show up for the next 4-5 months to get a seat on the plane next summer. Tuchel has more potential 10’s than he needs and Rogers is staking the best claim to the starting spot.

Mail Online

The two England players Tuchel voted for in FIFA's The Be...

Captains, managers, media, and fans were presented with a list of 11 stars from which to choose their top three and they were the only two England names on that list.

Thomas Tuchel voted for two England stars as his standout players of 2025 in the recent The Best FIFA Awards.

The Three Lions boss believed that Harry Kane and Cole Palmer were the best players in the world ahead of eventual winner Ousmane Dembele.

Captains, managers, media, and fans were presented with a list of 11 stars from which to choose their top three and they were the only two England names on that list.

I don't think we need to worry, Tuchel knows class when he sees it.

18 hours ago, BS66 said:

Prime Palmer probably needs to show up for the next 4-5 months to get a seat on the plane next summer. Tuchel has more potential 10’s than he needs and Rogers is staking the best claim to the starting spot.

Cole is a better RW anyway

Time to end their win streak imo

On 22/12/2025 at 04:44, PloKoon13 said:

So maybe you can build a title/CL challenge around Morgan Rogers winning games from 0.05xG belters.

If Rogers continue to do this, Villas is a legit contender.

Rogers is definitely in the sort of form Palmer was a while back when he then broke into the England team.

We need Caicedo to nullify Rogers and hope that Palmer is back to his best if we're going to get a result in this game.

Can confidently say only a Christmas miracle will see marescas CFC not lose this

He will f up the line up & tactics. Hes drained the life out of Cole, Jao, got our captain and oldest senior pro playing out of position and sh*ttens & Garnacho hardly strike fear into opposing defenses.

Merry Chrimbo 🎄🎅🎁🥃

No issue with the first goal (Rogers' strike), that’s pure quality. But the second is a GK mistake — Sánchez would be getting slaughtered if he conceded it like Lammens did.

Ok Big Enz. You have Estevao back so give us a line up worthy of some Christmas cheer.

Sanchez

James

Fofana

Acheampong

Cucurella

Caicedo

Santos

Estevao

Palmer

Neto

Joao Pedro

Merry Christmas all you ShedEnders. Have a fab day 🌲🍻🍷🥃🎁. If my TV feed gets back up I'll see you all for the Villa defeat match

Based on how they are utilised by their respective managers, Morgan Rogers is currently a better player than Cole Palmer.

Based on their abilities Cole Palmer is a better player than Morgan Rogers.

Ergo Emery is a fantastic manager, Maresca is a dipsh*t c**t and Tuchel will get the best out of both players in the summer when we crash out in the Last 16 x