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2021/22 English Premier League
Matchday 19
Aston Villa v Chelsea
Villa Park
Birmingham, England
Sunday, 26 December 2021
Kick-off is at 19h30
Chelsea will be aiming to get their title challenge back on track when they face Aston Villa in a
Premier League clash at Villa Park on December 26.
Thomas Tuchel's side have fallen slightly off the pace in the race for the top-flight crown after drawing their last two games against Everton (1-1) and Wolves (0-0).
The stalemate at Molineux on December 19 left the third-placed Blues six points adrift of Manchester City at the league summit and three behind Liverpool in second position.
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Tuchel took some positives from their performance in the Black Country, but is hoping for better luck in the matches to come.
"In the moment we are not lucky in our games, I have to say, because I think we did by far enough to win this game," he said.
"We had a clean sheet again, a well-deserved clean sheet, so a lot of positive things. All together I can absolutely live with it. We have won games where we played much worse, this is for sure."
Steven Gerrard has made an impressive start to life in the West Midlands, guiding Villa to four wins and two defeats since replacing Dean Smith at the helm on November 11.
Those two losses came against Manchester City (2-1) and Liverpool (1-0) - the two in-form teams in the league.
The Villans bounced back from their last-gasp defeat at Anfield with a 2-0 victory over rock-bottom Norwich City on December 14 to sit 10th in the table on 22 points.
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Villa have been one of the clubs affected by Covid during the festive period and Gerrard hopes a sensible decision will be made for the sake of the players' wellbeing as positive cases continue to rise in the UK.
"We're at the time of year where, naturally, there are more colds and bugs, and there's that paranoia that while they maybe haven't had a positive test yet, are they going to have a positive test in a few days," he said.
"Do you then take them out of the environment to protect others? There's all kinds of concerns and situations going on at the moment. I just hope the Premier League and the powers that be take player welfare into consideration."
Head-to-Head (Last Five Premier League Meetings):
Matches - 5
Villa - 1
Chelsea - 3
Draws - 1
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