Unai Emery, the manager of Aston Villa, led his team to another victory away from home against Chelsea with a cool performance to put further pressure on Graham Potter, the manager of the Blues.
At Stamford Bridge, Ollie Watkins capitalized on a Marc Cucurella error by grabbing onto his reverse header to score the game’s first goal. John McGinn’s second-half rocket put the game beyond the grasp of the home team.
For Chelsea, it was a similar story as they let many opportunities go as Villa took advantage of their vulnerability on the break.
The Villans have now picked up 16 points away from home, a total matched only by Manchester City in that period. This is their sixth road victory since Emery took charge in October.
Chelsea’s triumphs this season have come over teams in the lower half of the table, but with this setback, they now find themselves in 11th place, while Villa move up to ninth place and are now one point behind Liverpool in eighth.
Reaction on the Aston Villa vs. Chelsea game and recap of all Saturday’s Premier League action
Only Arsenal and the top three Premier League teams—Arsenal and the two Manchester clubs—have a better record than Aston Villa’s 26 points in 14 games while Emery has been in charge.
With this performance, it is simple to understand why.
Villa were content to stand back and watch Chelsea control the assault, producing nothing of their own but gaining from the hosts’ poor finishing.
Prior to Watkins’ first goal, McGinn sent a hard effort against the crossbar. Nevertheless, in the 56th minute, Watkins scored his fifth goal in as many away games with a shot from 25 yards out.
In his 100th game for Aston Villa, goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez produced an outstanding foot save to stop Joao Felix late in the game, allowing Emery’s brilliance to create a crucial victory away from home.
With their 3-0 victory over Bournemouth the last time out, Emery described his team’s aspirations for the European competition. With this victory, Villa’s chances of qualifying are increasing
When the teams met in the opposite match on October 16, Chelsea was 12 spots higher than Villa, but going into this match, they were only divided on goal differential. Before to the international break, Potter’s two victories in three games had helped to reduce some of the strain, but this defeat has brought it back full force. Cucurella’s oversight, which might have been averted had he let Kalidou Koulibaly to clear the ball, enabled Watkins to chip goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga in the opening goal, and his team was ever-vulnerable to the break.
With a one-goal deficit, they continued to pelt Villa’s goal with opportunities, but Kai Havertz and Felix both saw their shots well blocked.
Ben Chilwell then expertly headed in an Enzo Fernandez cross, but the goal was overturned because it was determined that he had shoved Ashley Young as he sprang.
Mykhaylo Mudryk, who was acquired by Chelsea in a January £89 million transfer, had Chelsea’s greatest opportunity when he received the ball just inside the area and was one-on-one with Martinez, but his weak shot hardly tested Martinez.
The Ukrainian winger has made eight appearances for Chelsea without scoring, and Potter still seems to be lacking a reliable striker. Despite 27 attempts at goal, they came up empty here.
Their ineffectiveness remained in the second half as N’Golo Kante and Christian Pulisic both squandered opportunities, and the crowd voiced their displeasure as they watched.