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Unai Emery has made a strong start to his reign as Villa head coach, recording two wins from three matches, with the successes both coming in the Premier League against Manchester United and Brighton.
The Spaniard was on the end of a 4-2 loss to Man United in the EFL Cup on November 10, but successive league victories represents an excellent start, and the results moved them into 12th spot in the table.
Villa will next be in league action against Liverpool on Boxing Day, but they will have played four mid-season friendlies before that point; two of them have already taken place, losing 3-1 to Cardiff City on November 30 before playing out a 2-2 draw with Brighton on Thursday.
Emery’s side have two more matches to come over the next few days, facing Chelsea on Sunday before taking on Villarreal on December 15, and the club only have one player still at the World Cup in the shape of goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez.
Leander Dendoncker‘s Belgium side were knocked out in the group stage, while Matty Cash and on-loan Southampton defender Jan Bednarek were in the Poland squad that lost to France in the round of 16.
Villa will be missing their players that have been involved in the World Cup, but there is still a familiar squad in Abu Dhabi, and Emery is expected to select a strong side for this match.
Having been knocked out by Manchester City in the EFL Cup on November 9, Chelsea are not back in action until December 27, with Bournemouth visiting Stamford Bridge in the Premier League, and Potter’s side will then take on Nottingham Forest in their first match of 2023.
Unlike Villa, a large chunk of Chelsea’s first-team squad have been or are still at the World Cup, so a number of youngsters should be involved in this match, although the likes of Marc Cucurella, Jorginho, Armando Broja and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang are with the squad.
There have been no suggestions that Potter’s position at the helm is under threat, but the 47-year-old has only won half of his 14 matches in charge, and there will certainly be eyes on the Blues when they return to competitive action later this month.
As many as 18 players were involved in the 2-2 draw with Brighton in Dubai, with Danny Ings coming off the bench to score twice for Villa in the behind-closed-doors fixture.
Leon Bailey and Ollie Watkins are again expected to start in the final third of the field, while Douglas Luiz should also feature, but Diego Carlos remains unavailable for selection through injury.
As for Chelsea, there are expected to be senior players in the starting XI in the shape of Trevoh Chalobah, Cucurella, Jorginho, Broja and Aubameyang.
Kepa Arrizabalaga was left out of the Spain squad for the World Cup, meanwhile, and he could start between the sticks for the Blues on Sunday.
Reece James has returned to first-team training and could be involved, but Wesley Fofana, Ben Chilwell, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and N’Golo Kante are all still out despite travelling with the squad.
Dion Rankine, Bashir Humphreys, Cesare Casadei and Omari Hutchinson are among the youngsters set to be involved in the contest, with all four potentially starting.
Aston Villa possible starting lineup:
Olsen; Young, Konsa, Mings, Digne; McGinn, Kamara, Luiz; Bailey, Ings, Watkins
Chelsea possible starting lineup:
Kepa; Rankine, Chalobah, Humphreys, Cucurella; Jorginho, Chukwuemeka, Casadei; Hutchinson, Broja, Aubameyang
In the week that the Bulls lost their most famous ex-player, FA Cup legend Ronnie Radford – 50 years on from his iconic match-winning goal against Newcastle – it briefly looked like there might be some left-over magic in the air.
For seven minutes, the sixth-tier outfit led after Miles Storey’s goal against the team 81 places above them in the English football pyramid in League One.
But Pompey hit back, with Reeco Hackett quickly levelling before second-half goals from Colby Bishop and substitute Joe Pigott earned the twice FA Cup winners a safe passage to Monday’s second-round draw
Making their first trip to Edgar Street in 38 years, Pompey were given a good first-half workout by the fired-up hosts.
Although home keeper Dale Eve had to keep out Hackett’s left-foot curler bound for the top corner, Pompey had a first real scare when Bishop’s challenge on Hereford’s former million-pound marksman Tyrone Barnett in the visitors’ penalty box went unpunished.
And there was worse to follow for Pompey when Hereford took the lead on 26 minutes.
Sean Raggett played a loose pass inside to Hackett, who was immediately closed down and robbed by Storey – and the former Pompey player raced away down the inside-left channel before keeping his cool to nutmeg on-loan West Bromwich Albion keeper Josh Griffiths.
Fittingly, just two days on from the announcement of the sad passing of Hereford’s legendary number 11, their modern-day number 11 emulated his predecessor.
There had already been a minute’s silence, which cascaded into applause from the whole ground, followed by chants of ‘there’s only one Ronnie Radford’ when the clock showed 11 minutes.
But this goal was destined not to prove so famous.
Ronan Curtis headed down Connor Ogilvie’s far-post cross for Hackett to bring down and fire home coolly from six yards.
On 63 minutes, Portsmouth took the lead when, from Clark Robertson’s in-swinging right-foot corner from the left, Bishop timed his run to get there first and head his 10th goal of the season.
And Pigott wrapped up victory 10 minutes from time when, again from a corner by skipper Robertson, Bishop won the initial header before Pigott reacted sharpest to sidefoot home
Hereford FC boss Josh Gowling told BBC Sport:
“I’m really disappointed because we should have got something out of it, but goals change games – and the quality of the delivery they have changes games.
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“In the first half we were excellent. We were in the ascendancy and they looked nervous.
“We were on top and looked like we could go on and win, but we’ve made one mistake, it has cost us a goal and that’s the difference in levels.
“We’ve given them a leg up and a little lift and you could see their performance raise after that.”
Portsmouth boss Danny Cowley told BBC Sport:
“I was so sad to hear the news about Ronnie Radford. He was such an iconic figure and he had that iconic moment. For a lot of people my age, his famous goal was their first memories of the FA Cup. But what a brilliant night to celebrate his life