Chelsea are back! Well, sort of. It’s been a month since our last game.

Half the team’s currently made up of Academy youngsters, but maybe that’s actually the most exciting part of today’s friendly, see the fresh faces looking to impress.

This is our one and only officially scheduled midseason pre-season friendly, so let’s enjoy. Chalobah was also set to start, but was withdrawn at the last minute.

Here we go!

Aston Villa starting lineup (4-3-3):
Olsen | Digne, Mings, Konsa, A.Young | Douglas Luiz, Kamara, McGinn (c) | Raikhy, Watkins, Bailey

Substitutes from: Marschall, Zych, Feeney, Chambers, Bogarde, Augustinsson, Revan, Nakamba, K.Young, T.O’Reilly, Archer, Ings

Chelsea starting lineup (4-3-3):
Bettinelli | Cucurella, Gilchrist, Humphreys, Brooking | Hall, Jorginho (c), Webster | Aubameyang, Broja, Hutchinson

Substitutes from: Beach, Casadei, Elliott, Rankine, Burstow, Mothersile

Date / Time: Sunday, December 11, 2022, 14.10 GMT; 9:10am EST; 7:40pm IST
Venue: Al-Nahyan Stadium, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Forecast: Sunny and warm

On TV: Abu Dhabi Sports 1 (local)
Streaming: Chelsea TV (free; UK & Ireland ... and Indonesia?); VillaTV (£1.99; might be also geo-restricted); Recast (350 credits = $4.38; int’l)

LIVE BLOG

Be excellent to each other, and party on, dudes!