Chelsea vs. Aston Villa: Date, Time, Live Stream, TV Info and Preview

Few teams in Europe are as hot as Chelsea right now, as the Blues have yet to lose this season. Few teams were as hot as Aston Villa in the Premier League before last weekend, when Arsenal spoiled the early-season party the club had been throwing.

When these teams meet on Saturday, it promises to be an interesting affair. Let's break it down.
 

When: Saturday, September 27 at 3 p.m. BST/10 a.m. ET

Where: Stamford Bridge, London, England

Watch: Premier League Extra Time; NBC Sports Live Extra

Preview

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Chelsea have been fantastic to start the season. No one is going to deny that. 

They lead the Premier League in points (13) and goals (16). They have three of the top seven players in the league according to WhoScored.com, with Diego Costa coming in at No. 1 (8.37 average match rating, seven goals), Eden Hazard coming in at No. 2 (8.32 rating, one goal, one assist) and Cesc Fabregas rounding out the trio at No. 7 (8.0 rating, six assists).

Those three players have represented a bit of a culture shift at the club from last year's cagey, defensively sound unit that beat up on the league's top teams but would have shocking lapses against lesser teams to this year's vibrant, attacking bunch.

Perhaps when you have Costa and Fabregas, you allow them to do what they do best.

And what's even scarier is that Jose Mourinho sees plenty of room for improvement, as he told ESPN FC:

"

We have to improve in every aspect, no doubt. I don't go for six, seven or eight [marks] out of 10, but we can improve.

We were deadly on the counter-attack against Everton [won 6-3], we were fantastic with the way we defended collectively against Man City.

We've had very good periods, but, in the end, what is important is that in this moment nobody is ahead of us. We look down and see the other 19 teams. Nobody is on top of us.

"

Namely, a Chelsea defense that has allowed seven goals in five matches can surely play better. 

Meanwhile, Aston Villa has made a living playing sound defense. For about 447 minutes over five games, Villa has allowed just one goal and has looked a drastically improved side from a year ago. Unfortunately, those other three minutes saw Arsenal score three goals on them in the blink of an eye last week before going on to win, 3-0.

Villa fans might point to an illness that hit the club in the days leading to that match. Whatever the case may be, Arsenal's scoring touch spread pretty quickly against them, too. 

Still, Villa is an impressive third on the table and could frustrate Chelsea by sitting deep and remaining organized and compact. The fear will be that Chelsea has the players to strike at any moment, much like Arsenal did, and so Villa will have to work hard from conceding all of the possession to the Blues. 

Otherwise, a stat similar to this one from OptaJoe might transpire:

That contrast won't favor Villa in this one if the shots in this game are proportional to that statistic. Villa must be smart and cautious in this game, yes, but they can't sit back and hope for the best, either. Chelsea are far too good to allow the best to happen.

Prediction

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Boromir from Lord of the Rings lore once said: "One does not simply walk into Mordor." Well, one does not simply walk into Stamford Bridge and come away with points, either. Dating back to last season, Chelsea has taken 54 of a possible 63 points at home. 

Expect them to take all three in this one, too. They're simply too good right now, and while Villa will provide a stiff challenge, the Blues are simply on a different level.

Chelsea wins this one, 2-1.