Match Report: Chelsea’s superb hour counts for nothing as Aston Villa come back to win 2-1

Chelsea somehow fumbled a one goal lead at home after an hour of almost unprecedented dominance against Aston Villa and ended up losing 2-1 after a preposterous late collapse.

In stark contrast to last week’s draw with Newcastle, Enzo Maresca’s team came out firing in this one. Cheered on by a festive Stamford Bridge crowd, they dominated the ball and the game, with Moises Caicedo patrolling midfield and the back four looking solid even without Wesley Fofana in the mix.

While their goal ultimately came from a set piece when Reece James’ corner was touched in by Joao Pedro, it was a just reward for their dominance overall.

But once again the attackers weren’t clinical enough, and Chelsea paid the price in the end. Alejandro Garnacho, Joao Pedro, Cole Palmer and Pedro Neto all failed to do enough to get a match-settling goal in, and Chelsea paid the price.

Benoit Badiashile made one of his customary errors, giving the ball away in a dangerous area, and Villa were quickly onto it to make us pay. Even drawing felt like a disaster given our hour of dominance, so the Blues pushed forward more and were eventually caught out again 5 minutes before full time.

In a way it would have been better to play badly and lose. This reverse felt even more damaging psychologically for the fact that the team seemed to have done all it needed.

MOTM – Reece James

Analysis

There are games of two halves, then there’s this… The first 60 minutes were among the best hours we’ve seen Chelsea play all season. They were so dominant against a flimsy Aston Villa team who just didn’t turn up. It should have been an easy win wrapped up by the end of the first half, with our defence and midfield smothering Unai Emery’s attack to a ridiculous degree.

But a real lack of cutting edge meant not nearly enough attacking threat to show for our dominance of the ball, and the turn of the tide felt inevitable eventually. The triple substitution made by Aston Villa after an hour made them better. The triple substitution made by Chelsea ten minutes later made them worse.

Teams

Stats

Quote of the game

“After the goal we conceded, the game completely changed” – Enzo Maresca states the obvious, post game.