Aston Villa 1 Chelsea 4
What a response from Chelsea at Villa Park. I said on Sunday after the Arsenal game that Chelsea played quite well despite losing and they didn’t let that loss stop them from battering Aston Villa tonight. They didn’t get off to the best start however after Leon Bailey played the ball across the box to Douglas Luiz who flicked in the opener just two minutes into the game, Chelsea were dominating Villa for the first half and equalised after Enzo Fernandez played an unbelievable pass over the top for Malo Gusto who squared it to Joao Pedro who equalised for Chelsea in the 35th minute. Just five minutes after Villa raced on the counter-attack with Rogers playing in Watkins who scored to make it 2-1 to Villa against the run of play, however VAR deemed Watkins offside to keep the teams level just on the edge of half-time. Then in added time in the first half Enzo Fernandez played another lovely pass through to Joao Pedro who dinked it over Emi Martinez to give Chelsea the lead at the half, Chelsea were rampant to begin the half and managed to get the third after Emi Martinez palmed a cross out to Cole Palmer who finished brilliantly to put Chelsea 1-3 up in the 55th minute. Villa’s high line killed them again as Cole Palmer played Garnacho through on goal who unselfishly layed it to Joao Pedro who completed his hat-trick to give Chelsea a massive three points at Villa Park.
What a season Joao Pedro is having. Since Liam Rosenior has come in Joao Pedro has been on a ridiculous run of form and has now scored 16 goals in all competitions so far this season, under Maresca he showed signs of what he could be in this Chelsea team but Rosenior has launched his Chelsea career to the stratosphere with the sky being the limit for how many goals he can score for the rest of the season, Pedro was never a prolific player at Brighton relying on penalties to increase his goal tally but he’s shown a side to his game that we haven’t seen so far with some brilliant finishes over this last month or two. The second goal tonight was sumptuous and his connection with Enzo Fernandez is one we’ve seen come to light since Rosenior has come in, even though he didn’t score on Sunday against Arsenal you can see the confidence he was playing with giving Gabriel and Saliba a tough time despite not seeing much of the ball. If Chelsea are to have a good end to the season he’s going to be front and centre along with probably Cole Palmer as Chelsea look to win the FA Cup or the Champions League in May.
A tough night for Aston Villa. They got off to the perfect start with that early goal from Douglas Luiz but from then Villa really struggled to get to grips with how well Chelsea were playing, despite that they had chances with that disallowed Watkins being a real blow on the edge of half-time as Rogers delayed the pass just a second too late only for Chelsea to score five minutes later. After going 2-1 down Watkins had another 1 on 1 with Jorgensen and tried to go round him only for Chalobah to shrug him off the ball as yet another chance went begging for Villa, injuries are catching up to Villa who were missing so many important players like Kamara, Tielemans, Mcginn who all would have started tonight. Getting rid of Donyell Malen in January was crazy at the time and looks crazier each passing week as he is tearing it up in the Serie A at Roma whilst Watkins and the rest of Villa’s attack struggles for form going into the crunch part of the season, a big month ahead for Villa who have a trip to Old Trafford next in the league in another big game for top 4/5.
What are the aims for Chelsea for the rest of the season? Finishing in the Champions League spots is a must for Chelsea but you’d think that winning a trophy has to be a goal as well for Liam Rosenior, a tie against PSG awaits next week in a repeat of the Club World Cup Final were Chelsea managed to beat PSG thanks to a masterclass from Cole Palmer so Chelsea won’t be going into that tie fearing a PSG side which doesn’t look anywhere near as scary as last season in my opinion. They face Wrexham in the FA Cup this weekend and will look to avoid an upset with the eyes of Hollywood watching under the lights in Wales, Chelsea haven’t won the FA Cup since 2018 so recapturing that trophy could be priority if they were to get knocked out by PSG in the Champions League. When this Chelsea team is at their best they can take it to any team in Europe so I wouldn’t be surprised if they managed to knock out PSG over the next few weeks, I suppose we’ll wait and see.
Big results in the race for Champions League football. Only 3 points separates 3rd and 6th now with Villa level on points with United and Chelsea level on points with Liverpool so it’s all to play for but Villa will be the team worried the most with the form they’re showing at the minute along with having to play on Thursdays in the Europa League, I wonder if Unai Emery might get to the stage were he sacrifices the league in order to try and win Aston Villa the Europa League and get them into the Champions League that way. I know that might sound ridiculous at this stage but Villa have a slim squad along with dealing with injuries so it might be better to focus on only one competition like Man United and Spurs did last year, we saw how that has worked out for both sides but Emery may have a decision to make if Villa keep up this horrific form in the league. It’s United at Old Trafford next for Villa as Chelsea face Newcastle at Stamford Bridge after some European blockbusters next week, can’t wait to see how those games go next week and we’ll keep you up-to-date here.