With more than a third of the season completed, Chelsea stand fourth with 26 points from 14 matches, 14 points behind leaders Liverpool but six ahead of fifth-placed Tottenham. It is fair to say that situation would probably have been at the upper end of expectations back in June.

Tonight we welcome back a club hero, John Terry, now assistant manager at Aston Villa. The Blues have won the past four home league games against the Midlanders with an aggregate score of 15-1. A fifth successive top-flight win against them would be a first at Stamford Bridge.

Aston Villa were Frank Lampard’s ‘bunny club’ when he was a player: he netted 14 times while playing them, more than against any other opponent, passed the 150 mark and became Chelsea’s all-time leading goalscorer in games against tonight’s opposition.

A victory tonight would be a novel experience for Lampard the coach, however. As Derby boss he lost all three encounters last season with the Villans, including the play-off final at Wembley.

High scores were a feature of this fixture prior to Villa’s relegation. Chelsea racked up 32 goals during their nine most recent visits, and the 8-0 win in 2012 equalled our all-time biggest league win.

Goals from the back four

Chelsea’s leading marksman Tammy Abraham is hoping to return from a hip injury to face the loan club whose promotion last season was underpinned by his impressive tally of 26 goals.

Premier League top scorers

Jamie Vardy 13Tammy Abraham 10Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang 10Sergio Aguero 9Sadio Mane 8Raheem Sterling 8

Chelsea misfired without the England striker against West Ham, but shifting the score along is not solely the responsibility of attacking players, as one man in the visiting bench can attest. Villa assistant coach John Terry is still the Premier League’s leading goalscoring defender with 41 goals over 17 successive seasons during his immensely distinguished career at the Bridge.

The Blues’ ‘Captain, Leader, Legend’ managed 67 in all competitions for Chelsea and there was no-one more adept during set-plays at either end of the pitch. Other than Marcos Alonso (19 goals) our current crop of defenders have a way to go to approach the regularity of Terry or illustrious predecessors such as Peter Sillett, Dave Webb and Branislav Ivanovic (all with 34 strikes for the Blues), Gary Cahill, 25, Frank Leboeuf and Dan Petrescu, 24, and William Gallas 14.

Perhaps the game is changing, though. Only 10 defenders have hit the net on more than one occasion in the top flight this season. Leading the way are West Ham’s Aaron Cresswell and Virgil Van Dijk with three. Each of the Liverpool defender's goals have come from a free-kick or corner.

Chelsea have managed a decent tally of 50 attempts at set-plays (only six clubs have had more) yet rank 14th for goals from that source, with two. (Only Everton, Palace, and Watford have scored fewer.) Neither Fikayo Tomori’s goal at Wolves – a 35-yard banger – nor Alonso’s winner against Newcastle were from set-pieces.

Big-time Villans

This is the Villans’ first season in the top flight since their relegation in 2016. Chelsea have lost only one of the past 55 Premier League home games against a promoted side (comprising 44 wins and 10 draws), and none since December 2015 (Bournemouth).

Dean Smith’s side currently reside in 15th place, three points above the relegation zone, and have earned three-quarters of their points at Villa Park. They have conceded at least a goal a game on the road, almost 90 per cent of them coming in the second half.

They tend to defend narrowly and counter-attack dynamically. Their full-backs are not especially attacking, width upfront coming from Jota and Anwar El Ghazi, who could both miss out through injury this evening.

El Ghazi and Jack Grealish have been their outstanding performers, each with three goals and four assists to their credit. Trezeguet is likely to replace El Ghazi, while Ahmed Elmohamady, now 32, may step in for the suspended right-back Frederic Guilbert.

FA Cup and Champions League catch-up

Chelsea, Fulham, Brentford, and Queen’s Park Rangers were all handed home ties in the draw for round three of the FA Cup. The Blues will entertain Nottingham Forest for the second season running.

Champions League opponents Lille won 1-0 at Lyon last night and have had their home game with Ligue 1 strugglers Brest brought forward to Friday evening ahead the final Group H match at the Bridge on Tuesday.

A whole new streamed game

This round of Premier League fixtures is the first of two to be shown in their entirety on Amazon’s Prime Video streaming service starting yesterday and finishing tomorrow. (The second set on Prime will be on Boxing Day and 27 December.)

The games can be viewed live on any platform that supports the Prime Video app (Apple Mac users may need to use the Chrome browser rather than Safari) and, through a partnership with BT Sport, pubs will have the option to purchase the stream and select which matches to show.

The new service will be free to existing Prime subscribers, and new customers can sign up for a free 30-day trial that covers both rounds of matches. Be prepared for a slight lag between real time and the streamed video, and needless to say many of the usual suspects are involved in the commentaries.

The biggest change for those attending Chelsea vs Villa tonight will be the unusual earlier start time of 7.30pm.

Coming up

After last weekend’s last-minute defeat at Leicester, Saturday lunchtime hosts Everton are at Anfield this evening with a later kick-off time of 8.15pm.

Tickets (£9, £1 concessions) are still available for Chelsea Women’s WSL showdown with Man City on Sunday at Kingsmeadow, which will feature plenty of festivities for all the family.

Huddersfield Town may have grimaced when the draw for the FA Youth Cup matched them with Chelsea, 6-1 victors against the Tykes twice in the past five seasons. The match will be a 7pm kick-off at Kingsmeadow on Wednesday 18 December.

No place like home?

Villa have the joint-worst points tally on their travels alongside Everton, Brighton and Norwich but Chelsea have been far more efficient away from Stamford Bridge so far this campaign.

In fact, Chelsea, the second-best team on the road, have only the ninth-best record at home in the top flight this season. The 19 away goals scored also compares very favourably to nine at the Bridge.

Are the Blues too ‘nice’ at home? During Saturday’s defeat by West Ham the hosts did not commit a single foul – the only occasion since Opta began recording Premier League data in 2003/04. It coincided with the first time in 15 top-flight home games the players have failed to find the net.

‘Great Dane’ remembered

Look out tonight for two youngsters proudly wearing shirts bearing the surname Middelboe in honour of Nils Middelboe (1913-22). The Olympic medal-winning midfielder was English football’s first overseas star, striding the field like a colossus and earning the nickname ‘the Great Dane’ as a result.

Returning to his native Denmark to become a director of his first club KB of Copenhagen, he maintained strong links with the Pensioners throughout his life. A few years ago his family donated the actual football handed to Nils after his debut as captain on 15 November 1913.

Tonight a number of his descendants will be watching from the West Stand: great-grandson Nils Middelboe with his wife Inger, great-great granddaughter Camilla Middelboe Budde and her husband Adam, and great-great-great grandsons Mathias Middelboe Budde (aged 11) and Mads Middelboe Budde (13), who are both already exhibiting their ancestor’s sporting prowess.

Chelsea honour the contribution of Nils and welcome his family ‘home’. Nyd fodboldkampen!

Rainbow laces

The players will wear rainbow laces, and the captain a multicoloured armband this evening to demonstrate the club’s commitment to making Stamford Bridge a welcoming place for LGBT people.

At Chelsea we have a zero tolerance policy towards homophobic chanting, and there was a reminder of the work still to be done in that regard with the repeated chant from sections of the traveling support last weekend.

Premier League fixtures (all Prime Video)

TuesdayCrystal Palace 1 Bournemouth 0Burnley 1 Manchester City 4

WednesdayChelsea v Aston Villa 7.30pmLeicester v Watford 7.30pmManchester United v Tottenham 7.30pmSouthampton v Norwich 7.30pmWolves v West Ham 7.30pmLiverpool v Everton 8.15pm

ThursdaySheffield United v Newcastle 7.30pmArsenal v Brighton 8.15pm

Highlights of tonight's match will be available on The 5th Stand app from midnight UK time.