There were fans with flares outside Villa Park’s Trinity Road Stand, turning the air burgundy and blue as the team’s coaches arrived. “On the way, on the way to the Champions League, we are on the way,” they stammered after a thirsty Saturday.
Even the guy with the broken ankle was jumping on his good leg while singing. They were hoping for a win against a Chelsea team that has at times resembled a £1bn traveling circus this season, most notably in their five-goal haul against Arsenal in midweek.
It looked like victory was on its way when Villa led by two goals and yet this Chelsea team has as much grit as we’ve seen all season. From 2-0 down at half-time they took full control and finally scored in the second half through Noni Madueke and then a Conor Gallagher curler that sailed into the top corner to equalise.
It was the least they deserved and they could have even won this match too if it weren’t for the VAR annulling a header from Axel Disasi after a push from Benoit Badiashile on Diego Carlos.
It left Villa with a strange sense of relief and disappointment. Relieved not to lose, but disappointed not to have been able to surpass Tottenham by nine points in their quest for the Champions League. Seven will have to be enough, although the way Villa performed here may worry Unai Emery, especially against such a depleted away team.
Chelsea’s Axel Disasi thought he had done enough to secure three points for his team
However, the referee checked the on-field monitor and said there was a lack of preparation.
As a result, Saturday night’s match ended 2-2 after Chelsea initially lost 2-0.
It was a terrible start for Chelsea and an even worse start for Marc Cucurella (pictured above)
Chelsea have so many injured men that a clever XI could be named with a bit of artistic licence. Robert Sánchez in goal; Malo Gusto, Levi Colwill, Wesley Fofana and Ben Chilwell on defense; Lesley Ugochukwu, Enzo Fernández and Romeo Lavia in midfield; Carney Chukwuemeka and Raheem Sterling on the right and left behind Christopher Nkunku. Et voilá: a silly team that cost £486 million to build and that doesn’t even include club captain Reece James.
Cole Palmer was at least back in the line-up, the club’s top scorer, now recovered from the illness that caused him to miss the 5-0 humiliation at Arsenal. However, just like that trip to the Emirates Stadium, Chelsea’s clean sheet here lasted less than four minutes.
This was terrible defending as a single pass from Pau Torres split Noni Madueke and Trevoh Chalobah, the right winger and right back who were not on the same page. That led to a Lucas Digne cutback for John McGinn, who passed the ball over the line through Marc Cucurella.
Villa looked to rub salt in Chelsea’s wounds after that own goal by scoring an immediate second, with Digne hitting the side netting as Ollie Watkins tested Djordje Petrovic.
Then, out of nowhere, Chelsea equalized, or so they thought. Moisés Caicedo’s ball over the top was collected very well by Nicolas Jackson, the striker now with a shaved head who produced a sure shot over Emiliano Martínez. Villa Park remained silent until the announcer confirmed that VAR was studying whether Jackson was on or offside. Unfortunately for Chelsea, he left.
That familiar feeling of lack of luck could only have overcome Mauricio Pochettino at that moment, although Chelsea began to create opportunities from this. The problem is that they could not find the required shot since his coach stood with her arms crossed in her technical area.
Mykhailo Mudryk sent at least two shots wide that went embarrassingly wide of Martínez’s goal, one of them so poor that it landed on the assistant referee’s feet. Palmer fired another chance over the bar while Conor Gallagher also failed to find the target from 20 yards.
Jackson squandered the worst of the missed chances when Cucurella’s hanging cross found him unmarked and he headed onto the post from six yards.
The visiting fans sang Bob Marley’s The Three Little Birds, insisting that “everything is going to be okay.” However, in the 42nd minute, Villa doubled their lead when Morgan Rogers scored between Chalobah’s legs from the edge of the area after the Chelsea defense had failed to clear.
Pochettino’s players had created more than enough chances to score. They had achieved almost 80 per cent possession at Villa Park. And yet they were down 2-0 at half-time. Typical, Pochettino could only have thought as he trudged through the tunnel.
Heading into this match, the statistics showed that in a Premier League standings based solely on the second half, Chelsea would be in the relegation zone. Instead of singing a lullaby to his young team at half-time, Pochettino needed to find some words of inspiration if they were to get back to this.
He scored an own goal in the fourth minute of the match to give Aston Villa an early lead.
Morgan Rogers extended Aston Villa’s lead and performed the icy celebration (above)
Noni Madueke recovered the goal for the visitors and sparked something in his teammates
The worrying thing for the 52-year-old Argentine is that his bench screamed inexperience and defender Axel Disasi was his only veteran outfielder. In addition to two goalkeepers, there were Deivid Washington and Tyrique George, both 18, and Josh Acheampong and Kiano Dyer, each 17, but neither with a reputation for changing a game. To a large extent, he would be left up to the players on the field.
At the start of the second half, Emery made a change, but not one we expected, as goalkeeper Martínez was replaced by Robin Olsen. Cucurella tried to test his nerve a minute after the restart, but he only sent the ball into the north stand.
In the 49th minute, Caicedo and Douglas Luiz had a minor fight, which earned them a caution each. Caicedo soon took out his anger on the ball but his rocket flew into Olsen’s arms.
Chelsea began to create chances again. Madueke beat Digne as he cut inside but couldn’t find the far corner. Thiago Silva, still strong in the 39th, sent a header towards goal, but Matty Cash threw his body into the path to block.
Then, finally, Chelsea scored. It all started with Villa trying to play from the back, only for Gallagher to show why he is the best presser in the Premier League by taking possession away from Luiz. That led to Madueke directing the ball into the bottom corner to reduce the deficit.
Chelsea were on Villa and Olsen needed to punch Madueke’s cross shot away. Villa Park were showing their nerves, not knowing if they would hold out for this victory.
Emery made changes as we reached the final stages, but Pochettino held out as his bench had very few senior players. Villa held on. A great victory, if not a nice performance.
He asked his teammates to recover the ball and return to action as soon as possible.
Conor Gallagher scored a sublime goal to level the score in the 81st minute of the match
