Aston Villa-Chelsea Preview: How Villa Can Beat the Blues

It's a notoriously tough task beating Chelsea, home or away. Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United will all tell you that.

However, if there's one side who could possibly have perfected the art of conquering Chelsea at home, it could well be Aston Villa; the team that have only lost once in their last 11 league meetings with the Blues at Villa Park (0-1 in February 2009).

Then again, this is a new season, and Chelsea currently sit top of the table with six wins from seven, having only lost to Manchester City away, a team that play in a very similar style and who are currently second in the Premier League table.

And this is a new Aston Villa team, with boss Gerard Houllier still to engrave his footballing school of thought into the Villa fabric.

The bookies have Chelsea as firm favourites to grind out a win in this encounter, while statisticians are quick to remind the football public that the Villans have dropped eight points this season from winning positions, which is the joint-most in the Premier League.

But a win is still not beyond Birmingham's biggest football club, providing Houllier earns his money and organises his troops in the right way with the correct tactics.

Space

If there's one thing Chelsea like a lot, it's space. Up top, space doesn't matter too much to Didier Drogba (who'll be unavailable for this clash) or Florent Malouda, who both receive the ball with the intention of taking on their markers.

But it matters to the support man, i.e. Nicolas Anelka. With Drogba out, it will be interesting to see how and where Anelka plays, because paramount to Chelsea's attack is the time and space the ex-France forward has on the ball to pick out teammates, or shoot, after dropping in between the defensive and midfield lines.

Space for maneuver is also important to any of the midfield three of Michael Essien, John Obi Mikel and Ramires, who drop deep to get the time and space on the ball to pick out that perfect pass for teammates who are able to move into threatening positions.

And so, if Aston Villa can close down not only the likes of Anelka and Malouda in their own half and final third, but rather the midfield three and all over the pitch, then they stand a good chance of nullifying the very potent threat of this West London juggernaut.

By closing down all over the pitch, they're disrupting Chelsea's rhythm on the ball and not allowing the players enough time to fully implement their manager's tactical instructions.

It'll make the Blues have to think quick, and could very well lead to some deleterious errors, especially in central midfield where sloppy passes and loss of possession can easily lead to a dangerous counter-attack against a very exposed defense.

So closing down all over works in theory, but how can Aston Villa possibly keep that going for the whole game? Read below.

Houllier's Passing Game

With a continental manager comes a continental style, as Frenchman Gerard Houllier tries to get his Villa players holding onto the ball more and dominating matches.

As anyone who has ever played the game will know, football is a lot easier when you have the ball as opposed to when you don't.

If Aston Villa can hold onto the ball as long as possible, it means they'll control the tempo, they can focus on their game better, and they will have the psychological edge. Also, the more off-the-ball running the opponents do, the better for the home team.

So therefore, if Villa can keep hold of possession for long periods of time, it means when they do lose possession, they'll have enough energy to pressurize Chelsea as much as possible and make life hell for the Blues by closing them down all over the pitch.

And thus if the home side can do that all game, it means the away team will become more and more fatigued, and their notoriously catenaccio defense will potentially get weaker and weaker.

Then it's just up to Ashley Young, who will be given a free role behind main striker John Carew, to run Chelsea's defense ragged by tempting the centre-backs out of position, while Stewart Downing and Marc Albrighton try to knacker out the two full-backs.

Of course, the more Villa play the ball around their midfield, the higher Chelsea's midfield and defensive lines will get as they look to regain possession, meaning if Young, Downing and Albrighton are on their A-game, they can get in behind Chelsea's backline and create goalscoring chances for themselves or Carew.

Psychology

How Houllier prepares his players mentally for this game will also be absolutely crucial.

With a lot of teams, managers always have to make sure their troops know the size of the task ahead of them, ensuring they're permanently engaged on what they have to do and put 100 percent effort in for the whole match.

However, the Villa head coach would do well to get his players approaching this game with a different mindset.

This time, the players should believe that they will definitely beat Chelsea. After all, the Blues are top of the table and are favourites to win the title again.

Therefore, according to what the Villa players should believe, Chelsea are the hunted, the team at the top with the colossal pressure of being that side which everyone is trying to dethrone.

Aston Villa are the hunters, and they have the backing of the whole league (except Birmingham City, West Brom and Wolves) in trying to bring down the top dogs, as after all, everybody in Britain loves the underdog.

There's no pressure on Villa; if they lose, they lose, and that's it. Chelsea on the other hand are fully expected to win this game and go on to win the title.

If the Blues lose, it won't just be the manager and the staff who are unhappy, but rather the hundreds of millions of Chelsea fans across the world, as well as the corporate sponsors, private investors, and all the other big money men paying those players' wages.

Aston Villa having nothing to fear going into this match, as Gerard Houllier will no doubt explain to his players. Therefore, they should have confidence on the ball and pass it around, making Chelsea do the running, and thus pile even more colossal pressure on their opponents.

If the Villans can think and play like that, Carlo Ancelotti and co. will seriously have their work cut out at Villa Park.