Thomas Tuchel admitted that dealing with “top” Aston Villa player Jack Grealish would not be easy for his Chelsea team in the final-day fixture on Sunday.
Obviously, Villa have a couple of other outstanding players this season, such as Ollie Watkins and Tyrone Mings. But Grealish is arguably the primary driving force of this Villa side.
Villa boss Dean Smith spoke about how his team saw a significant drop-off in terms of creativity during the 25-year-old’s three-month injury absence.
Tuchel seems to agree with Smith as he highlighted how important it is for his team to “control” the England international at Villa Park.
“Look at his statistics. Aston Villa with and without him is a different team,” the Chelsea manager told Sky Sports (via Football Daily) about Grealish.
“He is involved in almost every attacking situation.
“He’s very, very good in decision-making and [has] a lot of composure in assisting, finishing, and creating situations for people around him to be able to score and be dangerous.
“Yeah, a top player.
“A lot to take care of and be aware of [for us] to control him on Sunday.”
Chronicle view
Grealish is third in the Premier League in terms of chances created (80), only behind Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandes (95) and Chelsea’s Mason Mount (84). That despite a three-month absence.
It is easy to see why Tuchel might want to slightly put more focus on this versatile attacker.
One possible solution for the Chelsea manager is to tweak his back three, similar to how dealt with Leicester City’s Jamie Vardy in the last two games, as we’ve covered in our line-up prediction.
Read: Predicted Chelsea line-up vs Aston Villa: Havertz back leading line at expense of 22-year-old