Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca has acknowledged that Team Spirit has taken a hit after a bad form since the Christmas period.
The blues travel to Aston Villa on Saturday, after they have won only three of their last 11 games in all competitions, with one of those victories against League two -side Morecambe in the third round of the FA Cup.
Maresca said: “The team spirit must be upset at the moment. We have to be upset because we are not happy with the results, we are all aware of a club where we are not here to survive, but to fight win titles.
“They are the same players who were top four for most of the season for 19-20 games, second. Of course they will become better players and better professionals after this moment.”
Chelsea has seen that bad run to sixth place in the Premier League table slipping and beaten out of the FA Cup. They follow fourth place in Manchester City on one point and Maresca insists that they are still striving for a top-four finish.
“We often said: I think we have spent almost the season in the top four and to go with 13 games, the target is certainly top four. We will do our best to achieve that,” he said.
“Knowing the difficult moment we have now, one of the main reasons why is because of the injury situation. Five or six important players outside.
“I am here to win games, to bring this club to fight for titles. The problem is that when you win games, you look humble and if you don't win games, you look like a lack of ambition. Since The first day, my intention is to bring this club where it should be. “
Aston Villa midfielder Youri Tielemans is now of the opinion that his club can still end in the qualifying places of the Champions League after their 2-2 draw at home to Liverpool on Wednesday.
After the draw, Villa is ninth in the Premier League and follow the top four at five points.
“We always have to believe. We still have a lot of games left, but we just have to win games,” he said.
“It's just us to try to run the ground every time and week out to try to use a performance.
: We know we can do better and that we can have better results, but I think with the performance as we had tonight [against Liverpool]We can be really satisfied.
“The performance was really good. We had many opportunities that we could score towards the end. The fact that we came into play was really good, very positive. We have to take the point, go further and continue to perform.”
Next in our Premier League campaign pic.twitter.com/27aldnvnwo
– Aston Villa (@AVFCofficial) February 21, 2025
Players to watch
Aston Villa – Marcus Rashford
Although he still has to score his first goal while he is on loan in Aston Villa, Rashford has yielded four goals in Acht Thuis Premier League performances against Chelsea-Dit for Manchester United in 2016-17 (one goal), 2019-20 and 2022-23 (one).
This season he scored seven goals in all competitions and received his first start for Villa in their 2-2 draw at home in Liverpool on Wednesday.
Chelsea – Cole Palmer
Palmer's last Premier League assist for Chelsea was against Aston Villa in December for the goal of Enzo Fernández. Since then, Palmer has created 33 chances for 12 different teammates without one of them being converted.
Despite a dry run of four games without a goal or assist, Palmer has still scored 14 times in the Premier League and placed on six assists.
Match -Forecast: Draw
In this match, Aston Villa comes home on the back of a 2-2 draw at Premier League Liverpool, which was their fourth draw in their last five league matches.
In the meantime, Chelsea has won only three of their last 11 games in all competitions, including two of the nine in the competition. They are Winless in five league matches away from Stamford Bridge.
The side of Enzo Maresca has scored only two goals in their last five Premier League matches (D2 L3), after they scored nine in their two-out matches for this run (5-1 vs Southampton, 4-3 vs Spurs Spurs ). In these last five from -matches, the blues left their expected goals with 4.8 (2 goals, 6.8 xg).
Villa has only won two of their last 11 Premier League home matches against Chelsea (D2 L7) and defeated them in March 2014 and 2-1 in May 2021.
Opta wins probability
Aston Villa – 36.8%
Drawing – 24.9%
Chelsea – 38.3%
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