JACOB A POSITIVE OF EURO SHUFFLE

UNAI EMERY is poised to bring back Aston Villa’s big guns at Stamford Bridge after his makeshift XI misfired in Europe. The Villa boss found himself in the unusual position of defending his selection policy after an error-strewn 3-2 defeat away at Legia Warsaw. Emery made five changes for the trip to Poland and came under fire as the club’s return to the group stages of a European competition, after waiting since 2008-09, ended in disappointment.

The Spaniard still has a further five games in Europa Conference League Group E to put matters right, and maintained that with a glut of fixtures he has to use his squad.

He said: “We needed to try to get some performances from players who joined us late like Clement Lenglet. Others who are not playing regularly - they have to play - we don’t need just 15 players, we need 22 or 25.

“So I used my experience in Europe and of playing a lot of matches during the week. We didn’t want to lose.

“We are excited by the Europa Conference League. We have five more matches and everything that happened we can build on.”

One possible addition to the regular starters today is backfrom-injury Jacob Ramsey (left)

who impressed after coming on as a substitute on Thursday night. Otherwise, Emery will recall the likes of defender Pau Torres, midfielder Douglas Luiz and strikers Moussa Diaby and Ollie Watkins.

Emery added: “We could have lost in Poland with the 11 players who will start against Chelsea.

“It’s important to build a team, a structure. We made small mistakes in midweek. I’ve spoken to the players.

“Chelsea are a very good team with a very good coach. They are contenders to be top-seven. We will have a look at the players in training and decide from there.”