Aston Villa v Chelsea: Lampard to shoot Blues to victory

11May 2013

England - Premier League

There's only one game in the Premier League on Saturday and Paul Robinson thinks that Chelsea will get the three points they need at the expense of Aston Villa.

Aston Villa v Chelsea

Saturday May 11, 12.45 GMT

Live on Sky Sports Two

Chelsea's wait for a guaranteed top four spot was extended on Wednesday as Tottenham hit back twice to earn a draw. While The Blues would have wanted to wrap it up before the weekend in order to field a fringe squad ahead of the Europa League final, the fact they didn't just makes them a better bet to win this game.

Rafa Benitez has said that Frank Lampard will feature at Villa Park so it's not like he has a lack of quality to choose from as he plans to freshen things up. Benitez confirmed that Eden Hazard should be okay despite limping off at Stamford Bridge and similar applies to Victor Moses.

The last time Chelsea played away from home was at Old Trafford and they pulled off a fantastic 1-0 victory. That was their ninth away win in the league this term and they are now unbeaten on their travels since the 2-1 defeat at Southampton at the end of March.

Aston Villa have ran into form at exactly the right time and five wins from their last eight have propelled them to 13th in the table. They have hit that magical 40 point mark and while they aren't mathematically safe, it's hard to see Wigan getting the victory they need at the Emirates.

Christian Benteke has been in superb form - 18 goals in his debut season, including a hat trick against Sunderland - but he hasn't netted against a side in the top five yet and Chelsea have one of the best defences in the league.

I still have my concerns about the Villa defence as well - no clean sheet in 2013 - and they are vulnerable from set plays. John Terry, Branislav Ivanovic and Gary Cahill all get their fair share of headed goals and this is an area I can see them exploiting on Saturday.

Match Odds

Chelsea are 1.86 to get a vital away win and while the draw did tempt me at 3.85, memories of the 8-0 at Stamford Bridge came flooding back. Despite Villa still not being quite safe, The Blues certainly need the points more than they do and I think this experienced Chelsea side can do a 'professional job' on Paul Lambert's young guns.

To Score

The games are running out for Frank Lampard to break Bobby Tambling's goal-scoring record as he still needs two more with only three matches left before his contract runs out. Lampard is a hugely popular player amongst his team mates so I expect they will be teeing him up at every available opportunity, as well as letting him take most of the free kicks to go with his penalty duties. He was benched for the Spurs game and Rafa has said he will feature so it's almost a certainty that he'll start. He can be backed at around the 3.4 mark to score within the 90 minutes and that looks a steal to me.

Recommended Bets

Back Chelsea @ 1.86

Back Frank Lampard to score @ 3.4