Aston Villa are certainties for the top four says Andy Gray

Feb 20 2009 by Bill Howell, Birmingham Mail

a great result against CSKA but forget them. Put them away,” he said.

“A defeat against Chelsea would not be the end of the world for Villa in their aim to finish in the top four.

“Chelsea will be right up for it with new manager Hiddink, in his first game in charge.

“And it makes the game much more difficult than Martin O’Neill would have liked. There is no doubt about that.

“I don’t think a defeat would spell the end of Villa’s aspirations for the top four. It is then how they react to that setback should it happen.

“I think Villa can go into this game, not confident of winning it but of getting a positive result. Whether it is a point, or three, they can go in positive.”

Villa have not been beaten by Chelsea in 10 years at Villa Park since March 1999.

Gray said: “It is one of those extraordinary stats. I can remember seeing Tore Andre Flo getting a couple of goals (March 1999 won 3-0).

“It’s frightening that that is 10 years ago.

“It is one of those things where you do get runs when a team get into a vein and a zone.

“But the only word of caution I would use about Chelsea is that they hadn’t lost in 86 home games but that crashed this year at Stamford Bridge against Liverpool.

“The warning is that good runs come to an end. Hopefully, it won’t this weekend.”

Aston Villa v Chelsea is exclusively live on Sky Sports 1/HD1 tomorrow at 12noon.  Sky Sports also screen the following soon:  Villa v Tottenham (March 15), Liverpool v Villa (March 22) and ManchesterUnited v Villa (April 5).

All Barclays Premier League matches on Sky Sports are available in high definition on Sky Sports HD. To upgrade to Sky+HD call: 08442 411 333