By Ryan Ghee
February 1 2006

Aston Villa will face table-topping Chelsea at Villa Park this evening as they look to build on last Saturday's FA Cup fourth round success. Aston Villa team news: Gareth Barry will return to David O'Leary's starting line-up after serving his one-match suspension. Kevin Phillips, who has recently recovered from an ankle injury, could also return to the team with Angel likely to be dropped to the bench.

Chelsea team news: Striker Didier Drogba is still on African Nations duty with the Ivory Coast so fit-again Eidur Gudjohnson is expected to take his place. Michael Essien seems to have recovered from his ankle injury but manager Jose Mourinho is likely to rest the midfielder to avoid any risk of a recurrence of the problem.

History of this fixture: The two teams have played one another on 129 occasions with Villa coming out on top in the majority of the matches. The Villans have won 53 of the games, Chelsea have won 48, and the remaining 28 have ended all square. The meeting between the two sides earlier in the season ended in a 2-1 victory for the Blues but Villa striker Luke Moore became the first player to score past Petr Cech in the Premiership this season.

Match betting: Aston Villa win - 6/1
Chelsea win - 4/9
Draw - 5/2