Hakim Ziyech is still unavailable for Chelsea as Frank Lampard rang the changes as expected against Aston Villa.
The Morocco winger is recovering from the hamstring injury he suffered at the start of the month.
Lampard always planned to refresh his team due to the scheduling of two games in 48 hours over Christmas. But he made it clear he would make extra changes after hitting out at his side’s performance in the 3-1 defeat to Arsenal on Boxing Day.
He said: “There will be some changes and I knew that anyway. I’m certainly not going to bang the drum about the turnaround after our performance. It’s not the important point.
“But to play two games in two days we have to make changes anyway. Some of them will happen now because of how the game went and people will have to come in and inject the energy and the personality of our normal performances.”
Only five players - Edouard Mendy, Ben Chilwell, N'Golo Kante, Mason Mount and Christian Pulisic - retain their starting berths from the defeat at Arsenal.
Lampard hands a rare start to Antonio Rudiger in central defence against Aston Villa, while club captain Cesar Azpilicueta also comes into the backline along with Andreas Christensen.
In midfield, Jorginho is drafted in for Mateo Kovacic and in the final third Olivier Giroud and Callum Hudson-Odoi replace Timo Werner and Tammy Abraham.
Defeat against Arsenal was Chelsea’s third in succession away from home and Lampard admits standards have dropped in recent weeks.
“People wanted to talk us up as title contenders – I never accepted that as the case because we are not there,” he said. “That takes time to build and days like today (Arsenal) are certainly ones that we have to learn a big lesson from.
“Everybody, myself included, because when I see that in the first half I don’t like it so it can’t happen.
“The few defeats we had recently are because we dropped off. The players have dropped off a level. My job is to pick it back up.”
Chelsea vs Aston Villa teams
Chelsea XI: Mendy, Azpilicueta, Christensen, Rudiger, Chilwell, Kante, Jorginho, Mount, Pulisic, Giroud, Hudson-Odoi
Subs: Kepa, Thiago Silva, Abraham, Werner, Tomori, Kovacic, Gilmour, Havertz, Emerson
Aston Villa XI: Martinez, Cash, Hause, Konsa, Targett, Douglas Luiz, McGinn, Traore, Grealish, El Ghazi, Watkins
Subs: Heaton, Taylor, Hourihane, Nakamba, Engels, Guilbert, Elmohamady, Davis, Ramsey
