A goal against the tide in each half for Aston Villa saw off Chelsea in a 0-2 win for the visitors.
First came Ollie Watkins’ calm, dinked finish from a hopeful lump forward, that was flicked on by Chelsea defender Marc Cucurella towards his own goal. The ball sat up nicely for the Englishman who was able to dispatch the bouncing ball over Kepa Arrizabalaga and into the corner.
With Chelsea threatening, John McGinn’s superb curling effort in the 57th minute swerved away from Kepa’s outstretched arm and found the bottom right corner, stopping Chelsea in their tracks.
The win follows Aston Villa’s good run of form as of late and takes them ninth in the Premier League table, just one point off Liverpool.
McGinn and Jacob Ramsey were especially influential having forged chances from only 31% ball possession, all the while tucking in outside of their full-backs in defence to complete a solid bank of 6 and withhold the Chelsea pressure.
Watkins was calm and collected when he needed to be and took full advantage of Cucurella’s mistake.
Aston Villa only needed the two shots on target, both of which they scored from.
On the other hand, Chelsea will be wondering how they let such a game, in which they dominated possession and the majority of chances, get away from them.
It spells danger for Graham Potter who had subdued calls for his dismissal by qualifying for the quarter-finals of the Champions League. His predecessor has done him no favours by replacing Julian Nagelsmann at Bayern Munich, who now as a free agent is reported to have been in contact with Chelsea.
On a more positive note for Chelsea fans, N’Golo Kante looked lively when he came on as a substitute, even offering more of an attacking threat than some of Chelsea’s natural attackers. He consistently made runs down the right, finding gaps in between a rigid defensive block whilst his 65th minute effort on goal, despite dragging it wide of Emiliano Martinez’s post, was one of Chelsea’s best chances in the game.
Story of the match
Chelsea started the game with a 3-4-3 as Kalidou Koulibaly, their only natural central defender, was accompanied by Cucurella and Reece James. Cucurella replaced Benoit Badiashile as the left-centre-back, Ruben Loftus-Cheek played right-wing-back and replaced Wesley Fofana whose right-centre-back spot was filled by Reece James. Finally, Mykhailo Mudryk started over Christian Pulisic in attack.
Unai Emery set Aston Villa up as a 4-4-2 with Watkins and Emi Buendia leading the line. Veteran Ashley Young deputised for Matty Cash who was out with a calf injury and Boubacar Kamara was deemed fit enough to replace Leon Bailey in the starting 11.
The first big chance fell to Mudryk who did well to pressure Kamara receiving a drab pass inside his own box. Mudryk was denied by Martinez who made a good save down to his left. The Ukrainian prospect will be kicking himself that he failed to put away the early chance that certainly would have changed the narrative.
In a flurry of opportunities during this next spell of the match, it appeared Villa had exhausted their chances, as Watkins missed a one-on-one and McGinn struck the Chelsea crossbar. However, although Watkins initially failed to capitalise, he made no mistake in scoring the opener.
Chelsea then dominated and Potter would have been wondering how his side did not go into half-time at the very least level. Mateo Kovacic set up Mudryk for another big opportunity, Ben Chilwell hit the post from a tight angle and had his headed goal ruled out by VAR.
At half-time, Chelsea had had 14 shots, six of which were on target, compared to Villa’s three, of which the goal was the only shot on target.
Luck and Determination
After half-time, Chelsea’s dominance continued, but to no avail. Instead, it was McGinn’s speculative strike that found the back of Chelsea’s net, giving Aston Villa some breathing space.
Half chances continued to go amiss, and Chelsea were held by a determined Aston Villa defence, despite the plethora of attacking talent at Potter's disposal.
It was left-back Chilwell who was Chelsea’s most prominent threat going forward. His incisive runs opened up gaps and it seemed like the right to left switch of play out to Chilwell was what the Chelsea players were looking for every time.
It was unfortunate that one of these patterns of play did not lead to a Chelsea goal, yet Chelsea fans will be perplexed that they still heavily rely on their injury-ridden left back to create when Todd Boehly has invested hundreds of millions into attackers.
Furthermore, James’ 86th minute whipped ball across an empty six yard box might make Chelsea fans ask why none of those millions were spent on a dependable number nine.
Kai Havertz’s senseless attempt to block Martinez’s drop kick was symptomatic of Chelsea’s frustration, as the Blues cowered to a 0-2 defeat.
Player of the Match - John McGinn
The Scot was solid in defence and pinpointedly accurate in attack, not to mention his screamer which finished off the Blues. He valiantly captained his side to a hard-earned surprise win.