Bank's stadium is the ground for Barclay's Women's Super League mid-week action when titleholder Chelsea are welcomed by Aston Villa

This game should initially have been played back in October but was postponed due to positives cases of Covid-19 within Aston Villa's squad. 

When this game kicks off at 19:00 GMT on Wednesday, the Blues have a chance to yet again, to go top of the table which is currently occupied by Manchester United

  • Team news 

Despite the positive result from the weekend some interesting news were announced from Aston Villa on Monday. In an official statement on the club's website stated the news of the appointment of Marcus Bignot as interim manager with immediate effect. Where that leaves head coach Gemma Davies is still unclear but what is clear is that she will stay in the club and her position remains.  

Beside the fact that Chelsea will go top of the league if they will beat Aston Villa or if the points are shared is that the Blues will break a new league record. Another win or draw will mean that Chelsea is the only team remained unbeaten for 32 games straight, which no other team in the league's history have managed before. 

  • Predicted line ups

Aston Villa:
Weiss (GK)
Haywood, N’Dow, Haigh, Asante, Siems
Ewers, Hanssen
Iwabuchi, Silva, Larsen

Chelsea:
Telford (GK)
Mjelde, Bright, Eriksson, Andersson
Charles, Leupolz, Reiten
Kirby, Harder, Kerr

  • Ones to watch

Aston Villa:

The home team come from an impressive performance against Reading where Aston Villa stole an important point, with an end result 2-2, in an entertaining and rather snowy event last Saturday.

Villa's latest recruitment, Japan international, Mana Iwabuchi, made a spectacular entrance into the WSL, when she started her first game for the Villans against the Royals. According to @NWSLAnalitica on Twitter with statistics from InStatFootballshe had the highest number of touches for Villa with 50, won 3/9 duels, had 1 shot on target and scored. She had a passing accuracy with 64% (23/36), she created 1 chance and had 1 assist. Not bad for a first-timer in England. 

Another player that is worth a mention is Denmark international Stine Larsen who showed how versatile and useful she is for Villa. She started on the right wing, then playing both as striker before she ended up playing fullback on the right-hand side at the end of the game. 

Chelsea:

After a massive performance from fullback Maren Mjelde against Manchester United, the Blues finally announced her contract extension in the beginning of the week. Norway's national team captain will stay, at least till the summer 2022, with an option for the club to extend another 12 months. 

Mjelde had a very successful game in the 2-1 win over United where she dominated the right-hand side of the pitch, both in defensive and going forward. Mjelde had 51 passes with an accuracy of 86%, 14 ball recoveries, 20 challenges with 8 of them in attack and winning 50%. She had 5 dribbles with 60% success and 9 ball interceptions.

Source: InStatFootball

The Norwegian is without a doubt one of Emma Hayes' key players, since she is an essential player at the moment for the Blues. 

  • Previous meetings

Last time the two teams faced each other was in the 2019/2020 Continental Cup when they met in the quarter-final one year ago. Chelsea won that clash 3-1, with goalscorers being Magdalena Eriksson, Ji So-Yun and youngster Emily Murphy. Goalscorer for Villa in the 84th minute of that game was former Villa player Kerri Walsh.  

  • How to watch

This game will be livestreamed on the FA Player 19:00 GMT and will be available for the whole world to watch without geoblocking. 

Chelsea Football Club will also livestream the game themselves on the 5th Stand app, Chelsea website, CFCW Facebook page and YouTube, but geographical restrictions may apply.

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