Rogers playing his best-ever football as Villa prepare for Chelsea trip

Morgan Rogers believes he is playing the best football of his career, as Aston Villa prepare to visit Chelsea for what should be a stern test of their Premier League title aspirations.

Villa have won each of their last 10 matches in all competitions and could now equal their all-time club record of 11 straight victories, set in both September 1897 and March 1914.  

Unai Emery's men are third in the table going into the festive schedule, only three points behind leaders Arsenal and one off Manchester City in second, and they have already beaten both of those sides this campaign.

Their sensational run has been thanks in no small part to the form of Rogers, who has now scored 21 goals across all competitions since the start of last season. 

At the age of 23 years and 151 days (on Christmas Eve), he is the youngest player to net 20 times for a Premier League team in this period.

"I feel like I'm playing the best I've ever played," Rogers told Villa's website. "I'm the most confident but that's also within the team. 

"The team is the most confident it has been since I've been here. It's no surprise individual performances rise when we're doing well as a collective. 

"We're all confident in each other, the manager's confident in us and we go out there and we feel like we're going to win every game."

But on Saturday, Rogers will come up against another of England's best creative players, with Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca confirming Cole Palmer is finally ready to play a full game.

After spending over two months on the sidelines with groin and toe injuries, Palmer has featured in Chelsea's last four Premier League matches but has not played the full 90 minutes in any of them.

"I think he is ready for 90 minutes. The progression for a player is 45, one hour, then 70," Maresca told reporters on Wednesday.

"He already played one hour against Everton. He played more than 70 against Newcastle, so I think the progression is there."

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Chelsea – Enzo Fernandez

Fernandez has created more chances from open play (24) and made more passes breaking the opponent's defensive line (17) than any other Chelsea player in the Premier League this season.

No Chelsea player has scored more than five Premier League goals this campaign (Joao Pedro and Pedro Neto), so they will hope the Argentina can create some openings for his team-mates.

Aston Villa – Morgan Rogers

Rogers has been directly involved in more Premier League goals than any other English player across the opening 17 matchdays of this season (10 – seven goals, three assists). 

He could become only the third Villa player to net two or more goals in three consecutive appearances in the competition, too, after Dean Saunders (1992) and Dion Dublin (1998).