Chelsea vs Aston Villa LIVE: Premier League latest score and confirmed lineups | Football

The 3pm games have just finished and most notably, Arsenal have held on to beat Brighton 2-1 and remain two points clear at the top.

Liverpool have defeated Wolves by the same scoreline to overtake Chelsea in the table, for now…

Here are the rest of today’s results:

Brentford 4-1 Bournemouth

Burnley 0-0 Everton

Nottingham Forest 1-2 Man City

West Ham 0-1 Fulham

Chelsea have won just one of their last five league games but will climb back into the top four with a win.

Following a poor start to the season, Villa have now won 16 of their last 18 games across all competitions. At the start of the day, they were just three points behind leaders Arsenal and seven in front of Chelsea.

Here are the latest match odds courtesy of Betfair:

Chelsea win – 3/4

Draw – 29/10

Aston Villa win – 7/2

Aston Villa need a win today to keep pace with title rivals Arsenal and Man City but defeat for Chelsea would surely end their dreams of lifting the trophy.

Premier League legend and Betfair ambassador Alan Shearer has delivered his prediction for the big match:

‘Chelsea were brilliant in the second half against Newcastle. First half, they couldn’t string a pass together because Newcastle’s pressing was great. This is a tough one to predict because Villa are flying, beating whoever is in front of them, full of confidence.

‘I wasn’t that impressed with Chelsea defensively at the weekend. I’m going to go for an away win for Villa just because of the form they’re in.’

Enzo Maresca makes two changes from the Chelsea team that drew 2-2 with Newcastle last time out, as Wesley Fofana and Malo Gusto drop out.

Enzo Fernandez returns, while Benoit Badiashile – somewhat surprisingly – comes into the defence.

Two changes for Aston Villa as well: Donyell Malen and Emi Buendia replace Ollie Watkins and Amadou Onana.

Aston Villa XI: Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Lindelof, Maatsen, Kamara, Tielemans, McGinn, Buendia, Rogers, Malen

Subs: Bizot, Digne, Garcia, Bogarde, Hemmings, Onana, Sancho, Watkins, Jimoh-Aloba

Chelsea XI: Sanchez, James, Chalobah, Badiashile, Cucurella, Caicedo, Fernandez, Neto, Palmer, Garnacho, Pedro

Subs: Jorgensen, Gusto, Acheampong, Tosin, Fofana, Santos, Estevao, Gittens, Delap

Good afternoon and welcome to the Metro’s LIVE coverage of the Premier League clash between Chelsea and Aston Villa.

We hope you had a very Merry Christmas and are ready for some festive footie fun.

The all-important team news is on the way…