Festivities were thwarted at Villa Park on Boxing Day as Chelsea were gifted three points at the hands of defensive errors.
Steven Gerrard, John McGinn and Ashley Young were the noticeable absentees from the Villa team sheet and dugout, with COVID-19 cases continuing to toy with football and its communities. Despite disturbances to games, training and coaching, Villa managed to field a strong team to face the visitors travelling up from London, who welcomed Lukaku back to the bench and Kante to the starting midfield.
Here is how both teams lined up:
In true Villa style, it was a tale of two halves. The first-half was a confident, attacking and mostly positive display – defined only by a rather random own goal by Chelsea’s Reece James and a sloppy penalty conceded by Matty Cash. Sanson’s first start since April was a reassuring one, as he seemed collected and controlled in the midfield in McGinn’s absence, throwing in challenges and tracking back when needed. Chelsea’s back line were infiltrated many times, with Watkins and Ings getting in behind but failing to register a shot on target.
At half-time, with Gerrard likely on the phone and McAllister leading the charge from the dressing room, the message would likely have been to maintain the performance levels and stay organised. Villa were lacking the finishing touch, with Ings struggling to get a shot off and the front three seeming disconnected from each other for large parts of the half. Across the corridor, Tuchel was whipping up a new formation with all three of his substitutions to be used before the 63rd minute.
Lukaku was up first, followed by Christensen for injured Silva and Kovacic for Kante. This change of formation seemed to stun Villa, who didn’t respond to the shift of structure or style well at all. The home-side seemed to fall deeper and deeper, allowing Chelsea to pile the pressure on and get the ball to their target man, Lukaku. Their second goal came from poor team defending from Villa, as Hudson-Odoi was allowed to whip a cross in from outside the box, and Lukaku was not challenged by Mings in the air when heading the ball into the back of the net.
At 2-1 down, still without a shot of target, Villa looked slightly jaded. There were periods of better play, but the midfield drifted out of the game and Villa seemed to lose the ability to win second and third balls, conceding possession more regularly as the second-half developed. Without a decent string of possession or attacking play, it became increasingly frustrating to watch the side who seemed so cohesive and confident in the first-half fade into a team trying not to lose the game by a wider margin.
Three substitutions in short succession saw Traoré, Chukwuemeka and El Ghazi enter the field to replace some tired legs. This injected a bit more life into forward play, with El Ghazi registering the first shot on target, but again there was little end product and Mendy had an incredibly easy job. Crosses into the box were particularly poor, with almost all of them failing to reach the intended target.
By stoppage time, at 2-1, there was still a slight hope that Villa may get a final chance to steal back a point as Chelsea faded in and out of control of the ball for short periods. However, a challenge on Lukaku by Konsa in the 92nd minute sealed Villa’s fate, as Martin Atkinson awarded the second penalty of the evening. Jorginho beat Martinez again to make it 3-1.
Another strange meeting with Chelsea. Despite a very lacklustre second-half, the game was ultimately defined by two penalties and individual defensive decision-making. On the balance of things, Villa did not create enough to deserve much from the game, but remaining organised and strong against the clever forward play of Chelsea’s attackers could have earnt at least a point. Tuchel’s side did dominate for large parts of the game and ultimately deserved the three points, but Villa should feel aggrieved that they threw away a good first-half performance, and a lot of decent defence work for swathes of the game.
With Leeds on the 28th now postponed, there is time between now and the trip to Brentford to regroup, get Gerrard back on the touchline and hopefully rebuild a fully fit starting XI. Three points will be crucial to stay in touch with the top half of the league, and the performance levels will need to be maintained for the full 90.
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