Steven Gerrard: 'Aston Villa may need to use fringe players against Chelsea'

Aston Villa manager Steven Gerrard has acknowledged that he may have to call upon several of the club's 'fringe' players against Chelsea.

Last weekend, a coronavirus outbreak contributed to Villa's game with Burnley being postponed at short notice, and Gerrard revealed on Wednesday that the news remains "mixed" on that front.

While admitting that the situation could change over the coming days, Gerrard says that Villa are currently in a position to play Chelsea on Boxing Day, albeit in circumstances that he disagrees with.

Speaking to reporters at a press conference, the Englishman said: "We have mixed news. We have had a couple of situations this morning with the testing, but we also get a couple of players back. If the game was now, we would have enough players to carry the fixture out.

"I knew from afar that it was a very strong, positive academy. Now, having looked at it for a month, I'm in a really lucky position because there are a lot of really talented players on the fringes of the first team.

"I'm certainly in a situation where, depending on how it goes, we might have to call upon players who are on the fringe. That's not right, but because we played a lot of players against Barrow (EFL Cup in August), the Premier League class them as having first-team experience."

Chelsea are also battling with a significant numbers of coronavirus cases, but a change in government isolation rules may enable some players to return on Sunday, providing that they register a negative test.