Chelsea 0 Aston Villa 1: Pochettino’s season goes from bad to worse as ten-men Blues are downed by Ollie Watkins
OLLIE WATKINS piled more misery on ten-man Chelsea as Malo Gusto was controversially sent off.
At least this time the Blues’ boos were aimed at referee Jarred Gillett and not their billion pound squad as home fans were left livid.
Chelsea went down to ten men on 58 minutes as Gusto had a yellow card upgraded to a red after a VAR check for a poor challenge on Lucas Digne.
Boss Mauricio Pochettino had appealed for patience after Chelsea fans lambasted their struggling squad in the 0-0 draw with Bournemouth last time out.
He blamed his 12-man injury list, and a lack of experience among his new recruits, for his side’s struggles – now he can add Gillett’s name to the list.
After the sending off Villa smelt blood and Watkins pounced with an ice-cool finish on 73 minutes.
Poch was serenaded to chants from the away end of “you’re getting sacked in the morning”.
Maybe the powers that be will finally realise that the ex-Tottenham boss’ rescue operation may not be able to continue without the help of a recognised goalscorer.
All that transfer cash only to get cooked by Watkins with his first goal of the season.
Someone really needs to let them in on a little secret that strikers do win games as nearly every player had a go at blazing over yesterday.
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Chelsea have scored just seven goals in seven games in all competitions – and without one in their last three outings.
Villa, on the other hand, have scored 22 goals in nine games in all competitions.
£115m British record signing Moises Caicedo returned from a minor knee knock to replace Lesley Ugochukwu in Chelsea’s one change from the Blues’ goalless draw at Bournemouth.
He fired a low drive straight at Emiliano Martinez early on.
Mykhailo Mudryk and Levi Colwell whipped inch-perfect crosses into the box time and time again but no one was there to make the crucial touch.
And the visitors hit back with a Lucas Digne rocket up the other end which Robert Sanchez tipped over the bar.
There was another superb ball from Mudryk as he spotted Nicolas Jackson’s run into the box and made the killer pass.
Jackson had just Martinez to beat but the Argentina international made a superb stop to deny the Blues forward.
Malo Gusto burst down the right flank and cut the ball back to Enzo Fernandez who was the culprit of a shocking miss well wide.
Finally centre-back Axel Disasi looked as though he had broken the deadlock as he had the ball in the net – but it was ruled offside.
A cacophony of boos rang out at the break but they were for Gillett who blew up for half-time with more than a minute of stoppage time still to play.
Pochettino was left raging and was seen giving the officials a tongue-lashing down the tunnel.
Chelsea went down to ten men in the second-half and Villa pounced.
From a Blues attack, Aston Villa broke as Watkins burst into the area.
Colwill did well to block the first shot but the ex-Bees striker reacted quickly to squeeze in at the second attempt.
Chelsea hit back and Ben Chilwell lashed an effort that stung the hands of Martinez before another string of misses from the hosts.
Armando Broja summed up the host’s frustrations as he wrapped up the nightmare afternoon with a header well wide.