Chelsea 0 Aston Villa 2: Pressure on Potter reaches boiling point as dismal home defeat drops Blues into bottom half
GRAHAM POTTER is feeling the heat again after Chelsea slipped back into their bad old ways.
Boss Potter spent part of the recent international break with his missus in Abu Dhabi.
But it was anything but warm memories of his sunshine getaway making his ears burn as the fans turned on him in protest at yet another home defeat.
Chelsea were one nil down and booed off at half time after Marc Cucurella gifted Ollie Watkins his fifth away goal in as many games – a Villa record.
And when captain McGinn made it two with his first goal in 47 games the fans behind a dazed-looking Potter taunted him with cries of ‘you don’t know what you’re doing’.
They also joined in when jubilant Villa supporters sang ‘you’re getting sacked in the morning’. It was the same ill-feeling at full time.
Results and performances had improved before the Premier League shutdown two weeks ago. Three wins on the spin and even letting the lead slip against Everton was forgivable.
And in Potter’s defence, Chelsea battered the visitors with enough chances to have staged a comeback win with ease.
It was more that Potter’s players shot themselves in the foot and gave three points to Villa on a plate.
The visitors turned up in West London rightly confident.
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Not only are Chelsea wildly erratic but since Unai Emery took over as manager at Villa Park last October, their away form is only bettered by Manchester City and Arsenal.
Yet it was still Chelsea’s ability to implode spectacularly which provided the opening from which the visitors went ahead.
Douglas Luiz strolled away from his area with the ball then pumped it hopefully upfield towards Watkins.
The danger looked covered with Kalidou Koulibaly in close attention but Cucurella’s surprising attempt at heading towards neutral ground went disastrously wrong.
Instead of finding no-man’s land, the Spaniard who has only just won back the faith of the Chelsea fans after a torrid start to his time here, presented Watkins with a gilt-edged chance to advance and score.
The Villa striker needed only to take a couple of steps before lifting the ball over stranded Chelsea keeper Kepa from the edge of the box.
Individual mistakes can be costly but are unavoidable. Within the opening 45 minutes, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and the normally reliable Joao Felix gave the ball away cheaply, allowing Villa to put them under the cosh.
After only 17 minutes, skipper John McGinn pounced from 20 yards out and smacked the Chelsea crossbar.
Potter’s team had more of the ball and more chances but had Villa finished better with the fewer opportunities they got it could have been even more than one at the break.
Watkins should have scored on seven minutes when put through by his captain only to drag his shot wide, hiding his head inside his shirt in shame.
At one point not so long ago, Chelsea went six games without a win with only one goal to their credit.
Despite failing to score this was not as bad as that with Ben Chilwell heading in what he thought was an equaliser only for it to be disallowed for a foul.
Chilwell also hit the post, Mykhailo Mudryk had two shots saved by Emiliano Martinez and Villa’s keeper also blocked a cracking shot on the turn from Kai Havertz.
But Potter knows the game at this club. Results matter above all else and this one nudges them just into the bottom half of the table.
Yet in just 11 days’ time they will face Real Madrid in the quarter finals of the Champions League, such is the lack of consistency of this team in a supposed season of transition.
Potter is likely to still be around then and one silver lining for him is that he was able to finally get to use midfielder N’Golo Kante, who has been injured since August.
Unfortunately, the dynamic little Frenchman came on immediately after McGinn had rifled in his first goal since November 2021 with a sizzling drive from 25 yards to seal victory for Villa and condemn Chelsea to a tenth Premier League defeat of the campaign.