Good evening and welcome to tonight's coverage of Chelsea vs Aston Villa at the Bridge.

Kante bends a cross towards Pulisic, who gears up for an overhead kick unaware that there is a defender closing up the space, catching Cash square in the face with his boot. It’s an accident but the Villa defender will require some medical attention and a concussion test.

Villa break through McGinn and Traore looks to whip a shot in from the right, but it’s well blocked by Rudiger. It’s a very even game so far, with Chelsea slightly shading possession but both teams offering plenty of threat.

Hudson-Odoi gives the ball away under pressure and the ref waves play on. Grealish weaves into the box and pulls a dangerous ball back from the by-line, but it somehow evades all the white shirts charging forward and Chelsea receive a huge let-off.

Chelsea are playing with far more spark than they did against Arsenal, but another attack breaks down on the edge of the box and the hosts are forced to settle for a corner which comes to nothing. Lampard will be encouraged by his team's energy and intent though.

That was so close that it even fooled the crowd-noise engineer, who pressed the celebration button before quickly replacing the cheers with disappointed groans. That’s where you really need the “waheeey!” option for the false-celebration… we’ll have to wait for actual fans to come back before we get that again I guess.

Grealish is involved again, but this time he almost gifts Chelsea a goal, playing a blind pass across the back that picks out Pulisic in space. The American is forced slightly wide but still should score with his effort that cracks into the side-netting.

A couple of clever little passes from Grealish pull Chelsea’s defence out of shape and indicate the threat that the England international brings.

A Grealish corner routine catches Chelsea out, but El Ghazi doesn’t make decent contact and it’s an easy save for Mendy.

Grealish cuts back inside onto his right and curls a shot towards goal. It’s a decent height for the keeper, but still needs stopping and Mendy palms it behind for a corner.

Another Mount corner causes a few nerves in the Villa defence and Rudiger manages a flicked effort on target, but it’s a comfortable stop.

Mason Mount, arguably Chelsea’s player of the season so far, wins his side a corner, but his set-piece fails to beat the first man and Villa clear.

Chelsea are kitted out in their traditional blue with white socks, while Villa are in their white away strip with dark shorts and socks. Two nice-looking kits it has to be said.

The players take a knee (as they will continue to do so for the remainder of the season after a player vote passed overwhelmingly in favour) and Chelsea get the game underway.

In contrast to Lampard, Dean Smith has kept his side as similar as possible for today's game. Here are his thoughts on the selection quandary: "There’s two trains of thought, there’s rotating and getting fresh legs in or continuing momentum and confidence. I’ve looked them all in the eye and asked them if they’re ready to go again and they’ve told me they are. We’ve shown that we’ve got depth within our squad. They always worry you with the quality of players they’ve got. On their day they’re very, very good in this league."

In other news... you've probably heard already by now, but the Man City v Everton game that was due to follow this match has been called off due to a spate of positive coronavirus tests in the City camp.

Frank Lampard has been explaining his thinking behind the multiple changes in the pre-game broadcaster interview. “We haven’t had time to train, so the changes were going to come irrespective,” Lampard said. “It’s impossible to ask the same XI to play in two days’ time at the same level. They have a lot of confidence. We have to be aware of that. If we play at the right levels, with the right intensity, we should be OK, but we have to bring that.”

Chelsea were the big movers in the summer transfer window and we're just days away from the January window. Here's the latest headline transfer story from around European football.

And a little sub-plot sees the return of a certain John Terry to Stamford Bridge. The Aston Villa assistant coach has largely kept his head down in 2020, but he’ll certainly be keen to get one over his old friend and team-mate in the opposing dugout.

This is the sort of time during the season where early form can tail away, but Villa are showing few signs of dipping after their terrific opening to the campaign. They go into this game ahead of Chelsea on goal difference and with more than enough creative weapons to cause the hosts some serious difficulties.

Aston Villa make just the one change, with Konsa coming in for the suspended Mings.

While making changes at this time of year isn’t exactly a surprise, six changes and three of the back four being taken out of the starting line-up is a bit of a statement from Lampard. He blamed the players for the loss to Chelsea on Boxing Day, it’ll be interesting to see who he blames if there’s a similarly poor performance and result this evening.