Chelsea vs Aston Villa results, who are level on points with second-placed Arsenal, cruised to victory thanks to goals from Nicolas Jackson, Enzo Fernández and Cole Palmer. Villa, who have sunk into mid-table after losing five of their past seven games in all competitions, were blown away and their hopes of challenging for the top four are fading.
Villa made a decent start to the game and Chelsea were late on several challenges inside the opening few minutes. We did eventually get the ball and achieve some possession, only to face all eleven Villa players inside their own defensive third.
Despite that, we were able to generate some chances, taking the lead from the first one of those, even: Cucurella stepping up to win the ball, getting it back from Jadon Sancho to put a ball across the box for Nicolas Jackson to arrive and finish expertly with his left, kissing it off the inside of the near post.
We kept up our positive play, exerting solid control over the game, generating several more opportunities either from possession or from the high press. It was from the latter kind that Jackson was almost gifted a second — Martínez rescued his own horrendous pass with a desperation dive, but would end up hurting himself in the process.
A few minutes later, a great move down the middle led to a nice shot by Enzo from the top of the box to double our lead.
Match Stats
The second half continued along a similar pattern, but we failed to take advantage of multiple opportunities to put the game to bed — Jackson and Palmer both guilty of not finishing off more than presentable chances.
Thankfully that profligacy didn’t come back to bite us, and then Palmer did shut the door completely with a fantastic strike into the top corner.
Great goal, great game, great win!
Carefree.
- Three changes from last weekend, with Lavia, Neto, and Sancho coming in and Badiashile, Félix, and Madueke dropping out
- A couple little wrinkles in the lineup, too: Caicedo the nominal right back, inverting into midfield to push Enzo forward next to Palmer in possession; also, Neto on the right with Sancho on the left.
- Another goal for Nico; another goal for Palmer — both on 8 in the league
- Enzo scores for the second successive start
- Cucurella, Palmer, Madueke with the assists
- Fofana injury (hamstring) a concern
- Nice reception for Ross Barkley returning
- Six unbeaten now, moving back up to third, at least for now, level on points, goals, and goal difference with Arsenal
- KTBFFH
Possession
AVL39CHE61%
Attempts
9
Off target
8
On target
7
3
Corners
3
4
Fouls
20
4
Lineups
Chelsea
- 1Robert Sanchez
- 25Moises Caicedo
- 29Wesley Fofana
- 6Levi Colwill
- 3Marc Cucurella
- 45Romeo Lavia
- 8Enzo Fernandez
- 7Lomba Pedro Neto
- 20Cole Palmer
- 19Jadon Sancho
- 15Nicolas Jackson
Substitutes
- 12Filip Jorgensen
- 4Tosin Adarabioyo
- 5Benoit Badiashile (s 60′)
- 10Mykhailo Mudryk
- 11Noni Madueke (s 71′)
- 14Sequeira Joao Felix (s 86′)
- 18Christopher Nkunku (s 71′)
- 27Malo Gusto (s 86′)
- 40Renato Veiga
Aston Villa
- 23Damian Martinez
- 2Matty Cash
- 4Ezri Konsa
- 14Pau Torres
- 12Lucas Digne
- 44Boubacar Kamara
- 8Youri Tielemans
- 19Jaden Philogene-Bidace
- 27Morgan Rogers
- 7John McGinn
- 11Ollie Watkins
Substitutes
- 25Robin Olsen (s 46′)
- 3Silva Diego Carlos
- 5Tyrone Mings
- 6Ross Barkley (s 62′)
- 9Jhon Duran (s 66′)
- 10Emiliano Buendia (s 84′)
- 22Ian Maatsen
- 26Lamare Bogarde
- 31Leon Bailey (s 66′)
