Chelsea 0-1 Aston Villa: Ollie Watkins scores on the counter to compound matters for Mauricio Pochettino’s Blues who finish the match with 10 men after Malo Gusto was sent off for a dangerous tackle on Lucas Digne

• Chelsea succumbed to a 1-0 loss agianst Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge
• Ollie Watkins scored on the counter after Malo Gusto was sent off for the Blues
• Mail Sport’s new WhatsApp Channel: Get the breaking news and exclusives here

Aston Villa heaped more misery on Chelsea and Mauricio Pochettino by claiming a second successive win at Stamford Bridge.

Ollie Watkins’ second half winner made it another day to forget for Chelsea who failed to win and score for the third match running and ended the game with 10 men.

Villa eventually capitalised on Chelsea’s Malo Gusto seeing red in debatable fashion when Watkins scored the winner with 17 minutes left.

And, to add to Chelsea’s frustration, striker Nicolas Jackson was shown a fifth yellow card of the season despite a pep talk with Pochettino on Friday about collecting needless cautions and he too will now serve a ban.

The boos that rang out at full-time were inevitable. It is now just one league win from six games from Chelsea this season as their depressing form continued.

Ollie Watkins (middle) scored the only goal during Aston Villa’s 1-0 win against Chelsea 

Mauricio Pochettino’s (pictured) side have not won in their last three league outings having also not scored in any of those games too

Malo Gusto (middle) was sent off in the second half after VAR overturned he had a yellow card upgraded to a red by VAR

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They have won just three times in the league at Stamford Bridge in 2023 and twice in their last 18 games home and away.

For Villa, this was another impressive result as they got back to winning ways following their midweek Europa Conference League defeat in Europe.

The first attempt of a first half full of nearly moments came from the fit-again Moises Caicedo who fired straight at Emiliano Martinez from outside the box.

Villa then threatened for the first time through Lucas Digne, whose volley was met in equally spectacular fashion by Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sanchez and his acrobatic save to tip the flying ball over the bar.

After finding the net in eye-catching fashion in midweek, Villa’s French leftback seemingly had a taste for goals.

Chelsea’s best chance came midway through the half.

MATCH FACTS

CHELSEA (4-2-3-1): Sanchez 7.5; Gusto 7, Disasi 6, Silva 6.5, Colwill 7; Caicedo 7 (Broja 79), Gallagher 6; Sterling 6, Fernandez 6.5 (Palmer 68, 6), Mudryk 6.5 (Chilwell 61, 6); Jackson 5.5 (Ugochukwu 68, 6).

Subs not used: Bergstrom, Petrovic, Cucurella, Maatsen, Washington.

Booked: Jackson, Chilwell

Sent off: Gusto

Manager: Mauricio Pochettino 6

ASTON VILLA (4-2-3-1): Martinez 8.5: Cash 7, Konsa 8.5, Torres 8, Digne 7.5; Kamara 8 (Dendoncker 90), Luiz 7.5; McGinn 7.5 (Ramsey 75, 6.5), Diaby 7.5 (Tielemans 81), Zaniolo 7.5; Watkins 7 (Duran 90).

Subs not used: Olsen, Chambers, Lenglet, Kellyman.

Scorer: Watkins 73

Booked: Digne, Luiz, Martinez

Manager: Unai Emery 6

Referee: Jarred Gillett 4

Attendance: 39,700

 

Mykhailo Mudryk, having a mixed first 45 minutes, produced his standout moment with a reverse pass through the eye of the needle to pick out Jackson.

He could not produce the finish the pass deserved though with Martinez sticking out a hand to divert the Chelsea striker’s shot behind.

The trading of chance continued for the remainder of the opening period.

Sanchez held a deflected shot from Matty Cash and Enzo Fernandez turned Gusto’s cutback over before Sanchez shone again.

Nicolas Zaniolo thought he was about to cap a quietly impressive performance with the opening goal when he met a header back across goal firmly on the volley.

Sanchez, again, had other ideas, and producing another reflex save to help the ball over the bar.

Just before half-time Mudryk flashed a dangerous ball across goal but Chelsea had nobody there waiting for what would have been a tap-in, perhaps an indication of why they have found goals hard to come by.

They thought they had one just before the break only to see Axel Disasi’s header chalked off for offside.

After the break the pattern continued. Raheem Sterling was sent clear by Disasi and bore down on goal but was thwarted by Martinez.

Then came two costly decisions which Chelsea might have felt were harsh but were certainly costly.

The first was a fifth booking of the season for Jackson when Martinez’s attempted free-kick clearance hit the retreating striker, with referee Jarred Gillett deciding that the Chelsea striker had delayed the restarting of play.

Worse was to come six minutes later when Gusto flew wholeheartedly into a challenge on Digne, won the ball but caught his countryman on the ankle with his follow through, leaving the left back on the floor in a heap.

Gillett initially showed Gusto a yellow but changed his mind and upgraded the punishment to a red following a VAR review.

Both Jackson and Gusto will now face bans, in areas where Chelsea are not blessed with options.

Villa’s numerical advantage became apparent in Villa’s increased dominance though they failed to convert that into a goal initially with Zaniolo having an effort blocked and Mousa Diaby scuffing an effort wide.

Chelsea were still a threat though and should have made more of an opportunity when Ben Chilwell got down the left and fired the ball across goal.

Fellow sub Cole Palmer should have been waiting at the backpost for a tap-in but had delayed his run into the box much to Pochettino’s frustration.

A man down, he knew opportunities would be few and far between.

You can imagine, then, how he felt when seconds later Villa broke and scored.

Thiago Silva sloppily failed to cut out John McGinn’s clearance and Chelsea paid the ultimate price.

Diaby collected the ball and played in Watkins whose first attempt was blocked by Levi Colwill but second went through Sanchez’s legs and in off the far post.

Chelsea were down but not out. They were though, still wasteful.

The referee Jarred Gillett awarded the sanction for a dangerous tackle on Lucas Digne (right)

Watkins (pictured) scored soon after, having his first attempt blocked before striking home from a tight angle

It means the Blues now drop to 14th in the league table after a poor start to the season

Unai Emery’s (pictured) side meanwhile move to sixth in the table, having lost two games this season while winning four

Chilwell burst through again but shot too close to Martinez who produced another big one-on-one save.

Disasi then went through on the opposite side and when he should have crossed decided to shoot and got it horribly wrong.

Sanchez produced another flying save to prevent Ramsey killing off the game for Villa.

Were it not for an outstanding block from Ezri Konsa, Palmer would have equalised and Chelsea made the most of Sanchez’s efforts.

As it was Villa ran out winners at Chelsea once again.

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