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Chelsea (-333) vs. Aston Villa (+1000) (Draw +425)
After drawing against Manchester City (1-1) in their last EPL fixture, Chelsea will visit Aston Villa looking to take the full three points and extend their lead at the top of the table. Kick-off is set for 10:00 a.m. Eastern tomorrow at Villa Park.
In the moneyline, the Blues are the heavy favorites to win, sitting at -333. On the other side, the Villans are +1000 to pull the upset and the draw will pay +425.
The head-to-head history between these two sides is neck and neck. Chelsea have 52 wins to Villa’s 51. Though Chelsea has been the stronger side in recent year, manager Jose Mourinho has a surprisingly poor away record against Aston Villa with Chelsea (0-3-2); however, Chelsea has taken five of the last ten meetings, overall, and earned a draw in two more.
In the standings, Jose Mourinho’s squad is on the top of the league with 53 points (16-5-2) and a +32 goal difference. In contrast, Aston Villa are 16th in the league with 22 points (5-7-11) and a -19 differential. They are just three points clear of the relegation zone at the moment, and have lost their last three English Premier League games.
Aston Villa defender Alan Hutton stressed that the team needs to focus 100% on each game in order to get back on track.
“It’s about concentrating on Chelsea. We need total focus on that game,” said Hutton. “We’re hurting after the loss at Arsenal and it’s about channelling that in the right direction. The key for me is not dwelling on defeat for too long. I don’t think that gets you anywhere. You don’t want it to affect the next game. We’ve looked at the match, discussed it, had time to think about it, but now it’s on to the challenge of Chelsea.”
The loss to Arsenal was a crushing 5-0 setback. Given Villa’s current struggles, don’t bet anything other than a Chelsea win.
(Photo credit: By CFC Unofficial (Debs) (Chelsea 2 QPR 1) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons. Photo has been cropped.)
