Aston Villa manager Dean Smith has insisted his team will not fear Chelsea in Saturday evening's Premier League clash.
The Blues welcome Villa to Stamford Bridge in the first match back from the two-week international break as Thomas Tuchel 's side look to extend their unbeaten run in the top-flight.
Chelsea have won twice and drawn once in their opening three matches of the season but Villa will be looking to bring their unbeaten start to an end on Saturday.
Smith, talking to the media in his pre-match press conference on Friday morning, has insisted that his players will not go to west London with any fear despite playing the champions of Europe.
The Villa boss also hailed Tuchel as "fantastic", saying: "They’re Champions League winners, a fantastic team with a fantastic coach. You can see from the start they’ve had that’s it’s going to be a very tough game.
“We’ll go in full of respect for them, but we certainly won’t fear them. We beat them in the last game of last season, but Chelsea had an awful lot of chances in that game.
“We’ll have to be better than we were if we want to get something out of this game.”
Smith also handed Villa supporters a big boost, with Ollie Watkins expected to feature at Stamford Bridge.
Watkins was sidelined through an injury in the first two games, but the England striker made his return against former club Brentford before the international break.
“We’re getting healthier. We’ve lost a lot of players during the start of the season and this international window has given us an opportunity to get some back to full fitness," Smith added.
“We should be welcoming Ollie Watkins back to the fold – he played 15 minutes against Brentford. We’ve also got Leon Bailey back to full fitness now.
“Bertrand Traore has trained the last couple of days as well. John McGinn and Jacob Ramsey have recovered from their Covid-19 situations too.”
Meanwhile, Chelsea are still sweating over the fitness of new signing Romelu Lukaku, who picked up a thigh injury whilst on international duty with Belgium recently.
Speaking earlier in the week, Lukaku said: "I'll have a scan of my thigh. I am struggling with a minor issue for a while. And then I will return to Chelsea."
The Blues do have options if the Belgian striker is not available, with Timo Werner a possible alternative to the club-record signing.
