Long before Aston Villa realised they were also allowed to attack, Chelsea had so many chances to kill this contest, but therein lied the problem: they lack killers.
Joao Pedro led the line for Enzo Maresca and scored somewhat flukily after Reece James’ brilliant cross from a corner nicked his backside. Yet you watch Chelsea, you see them create chances galore, and rarely do you get that ‘they could score here’ sense of anticipation in your stomach.
It is all so wasteful. Alejandro Garnacho might get himself into a good position, only to then balloon the ball into the Shed End. Pedro Neto might skip by his man, only to then find nobody with his cross. Chelsea have attackers galore who can nick a goal here and there, from Garnacho to Neto to Jamie Gittens to Enzo Fernandez, but are craving that ultra clinical finisher.
Liam Delap replaced Joao Pedro when this match was locked at 1-1, but his greatest contribution was to receive yet another booking for dissent within a few minutes of his introduction.
Whereas Villa have a proper No 9 in Ollie Watkins. He might have been miffed to have not been selected to start, but he was brought off the bench in the 58th minute, scored the equaliser in the 63rd, and then the winner in the 84th. Chelsea could only watch in awe.
Elite Emery is a game changer
A fair few of the Villa players were having a pop at the match officials after the half-time whistle, though in truth, they ought to have been looking at themselves.
They had mustered an expected goals total worth 0.00 to Chelsea’s 1.98. Their 11 players had managed 100 passes in total added together when their opponents’ two centre backs, Trevoh Chalobah and Benoit Badiashile, had totalled 104 between them. They had not looked like a side on a 10-game winning streak. Not even close. Chelsea had been all over them.
But we knew Unai Emery would not allow such a pitiful performance in the second half. Villa’s manager is a master at knowing when to make the changes required to turn a contest.
Yet again, Emery exhibited elite in-game management here, introducing Watkins, Jadon Sancho and Amadou Onana in a triple substitution after 58 minutes.
Maresca responded 10 minutes later by bringing on Malo Gusto, Gittens and Delap for Marc Cucurella, Garnacho and Joao Pedro. It was strange that, a few minutes later, he also made another hasty change by replacing Cole Palmer with Estevao Willian.
Palmer did not look too pleased with that call. He asked Maresca’s assistant Danny Walker why they had decided to hook him, and gave the back of his seat a smack.
Whereas you could see the reasoning behind Emery’s substitutions, it was hard to see what Maresca was trying to achieve with his.
The big problem Maresca must fix
There have been some murmurs that Maresca is not too fond of his superiors questioning his tactical decisions after matches, and this was Chelsea’s first home match since his ‘worst 48 hours’ comments made following their victory over Everton.
At full-time, Chelsea’s hierarchy walked across the pitch to head to the home changing room as usual. The whole gang was there – Behdad Eghbali, co-sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart, as well as recruitment chiefs Joe Shields and Sam Jewell.
Maresca may face questions, from inside and outside, on why his side are throwing away so many leads. They have dropped 11 points from winning positions in home Premier League matches this season – four more than any other team.
