Beating Chelsea, Spurs winning the League and blind optimism

We've won one, drawn one and lost one so I guess you could look at today as what starts the trend. This isn't me getting ahead of myself or predicting the season, it's just that we've had a fairly stop start to the season and I don't think it was what any of us were expecting.

I for one think the side we have today is better than the side we finished last season with, even though we've lost the best player the Club has seen in a generation and I really thought we'd have had nine points by this stage of the season.

But I think we'll win 4-0 today so who am I to say we have the better side today. And I'm predicting the win without Emi Martinez and Emi Buendia. How much did I have last night?

But where does this confidence come from you ask because it's not as if we spanked Brentford. Well, it's optimism more than anything and that in football, anything is possible. Spurs could win the League. Think about that for a moment.

We have to have optimism this season because this one isn't about winning the League, it's about getting better than next season and that means accepting we're going to lose some games. But as long as we watch that side we lost to and learn, I think we're in a good place. And I think the learning the manager is doing will come good soon.

With the new faces, we need to give that side time and we're 11th today with quite a few new faces. I don't think that is that bad. I think when these players start to click, we're going to get better.

And for today that means I'm optimistically predicting a win. It's the job we have to do.

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Match facts from the BBC

Head-to-head

• Chelsea have lost just one of their past 16 home league games against Aston Villa (W11, D4).
• Villa's 2-1 triumph on the final day of last season means they can win consecutive league meetings for the first time since 1993.
• Their biggest league defeat was 8-0 at Chelsea in the Premier League on 23 December 2012.

Chelsea

• Chelsea can become only the second club, after Manchester United, to win 600 Premier League games this Saturday.
• They have earned 45 points under Thomas Tuchel - a tally bettered only by Manchester City's 51 during that time.
• The Blues have conceded a league-low 14 goals since Tuchel took charge.
• Two of Tuchel's three Premier League defeats have been in home games, with the other coming away at Aston Villa.
• Chelsea's seven goals in all competitions this season were scored by seven different players.
• Jorginho has been closed down by an opposing player when in possession of the ball an unrivalled 160 times this season.
• Romelu Lukaku has failed to score in all 14 appearances at Stamford Bridge in all competitions.

Aston Villa

• Aston Villa have taken four points out of a possible nine this season, having won their opening four games in 2020-21.
• Villa can score multiple goals in five consecutive Premier League away matches for just the second time.
• They have scored a league-high three Premier League goals from set-pieces this season.
• Since Villa returned to the top flight in 2019, Anwar El Ghazi has scored a team-high 15 Premier League goals.
• Danny Ings has scored six goals and assisted two in his past nine league starts.