Aston Villa vs Chelsea Prediction: Another difficult night in store for Pochettino

Aston Villa and Chelsea meet again in the FA Cup on Wednesday following a goalless draw in their initial fourth-round meeting.

However, the Blues have since conceded four times against both Liverpool and Wolves and are likely to be up against it as they face a team coming into the clash having beaten Sheffield United 5-0 in their last outing.

Match Odds

Villa are 6/5 to come out on top while Chelsea are 11/5 to finally get their act together on the road and claim a victory within 90 minutes. The draw is available at 13/5.

Goals are expected with over 2.5 priced up at 4/6 while punters who fancy both teams to score can get 4/7. A repeat of the goalless draw in the first meeting at Stamford Bridge is 12/1.

Villa striker Ollie Watkins is 4/1 to score the game’s first goal, while Chelsea’s Christopher Nkunku can be backed at 5/1 to open the scoring.

Team News

Aston Villa will be without the cup-tied Morgan Rogers while Pau Torres, Lucas Digne and Nicolo Zaniolo are also expected to miss out. Emi Buendia, Tyrone Mings and Jhon Duran are all long-term absentees.

Chelsea striker Nicolas Jackson has returned from the Africa Cup of Nations but the game could come too early for Levi Colwill and Trevoh Chalobah.

Romeo Lavia, Marc Cucurella, Reece James, Robert Sanchez, Wesley Fofana and Lesley Ugochukwu have all been ruled out.

Aston Villa to win in 90 minutes @ 6/5 

Aston Villa suffered a 3-1 defeat to Newcastle last week that ended an 11-month unbeaten league run at Villa Park, but Unai Emery’s team got back on track in style with a 5-0 win at Sheffield United on Saturday and can build on that by knocking Chelsea out of the FA Cup inside 90 minutes on Wednesday.

Chelsea are all over the place, particularly on the road, and they have to recover from a 4-2 home defeat to Wolves on Sunday which followed a midweek 4-1 humbling at Anfield.

Mauricio Pochettino’s side have lost six of their last seven matches away from Stamford Bridge and scraped home in the only one they did win at Luton.

The Blues also lost the away leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final at Championship MIddlesbrough and they may not be able to cope against one of the Premier League’s liveliest attacks.

#PickYourPunt - Aston Villa to score the first goal, over 2.5 goals and Ollie Watkins to score at any time @ 10/3 

The emphasis is on Villa to gain the upper hand and they should be able to do that by scoring the first goal of the clash, something they have done in seven of their last nine matches at Villa Park.

The first meeting was goalless but the chances are this is going to be a lot more open, so backing over 2.5 goals as the second element of a #PickYourPunt selection looks a solid tactic.

Chelsea have conceded at least twice in their last six Premier League away games and seven of their last nine altogether have featured at least three goals.

Meanwhile, ‘overs’ has been a losing bet in just four of Villa’s 16 home games this season.

Complete the treble by backing Ollie Watkins to find the net. He remains the chief Villa goal threat and while they lost their almost year-long home league unbeaten record against Newcastle last week, he did end a six-game goal drought that night.

The England striker netted again in the 5-0 win at Sheffield United and looks to have his confidence back.