Chelsea 3-0 Aston Villa: Blues make light work of Villa
Chelsea 3-0 Aston Villa: Blues make light work of Villa. Enzo Maresca and his Chelsea side did made some light work of Aston Villa on Sunday en route to a comfortable 3-0 victory at home.
The trio of Nicolas Jackson, Enzo Fernandez and Cole Palmer were all on target for the dominant Blues, who continue to keep up the pace at the top of the Premier League table, while Villa slump down into the bottom half of the standings as their miserable form continues.
How the game unfolded:
Chelsea got off to the perfect start with a goal after just seven minutes. It was a resilient Marc Cucurella who recovered possession high and combined with Jadon Sancho to get in behind, and his cut-back was expertly turned into the back of the net by Jackson courtesy of a delightful flick off the post.
However, an excellent Villa play resulted in a weak penalty shout from Youri Tielemans which was waved away immediately, before Ollie Watkins should have equalised. He shrugged off Wesley Fofana but declined to square to Morgan Rogers for a tap in and instead drove towards Sanchez, who got down very well to deny the striker from close range.
Chelsea were however awarded an indirect free kick on the edge of the six-yard box after Emiliano Martinez picked up a back-pass midway through the half.
Cole Palmer ended up firing goal-ward but saw his effort sent back by the Villa stopper, before Romeo Lavia’s attempt was also knocked away by the wall of defenders charging off the line.
Martinez played both villain and hero shortly after. The goalkeeper inexplicably passed directly to Jackson just a few yards away from him, before flinging himself at the Chelsea forward’s feet to push the ball away from danger.
The pressure from Chelsea kept on mounting and Enzo Fernandez added a second 36 minutes in. He collected a smart pass from Palmer and fizzed in a delightful half-volley with the outside of his boot into the bottom of Villa’s net.
Jackson crashed over in the early stages of the second half as Chelsea looked to kill the game off, before a heavy touch when running through on goal allowed substitute goalkeeper Robin Olsen to neutralise any danger before it materialized.
There was a bit more life for the visitors as substitute Jhon Duran sent a powerful header towards goal, with only a timely deflection from a confident Levi Colwill preventing the ball from nestling in the back of the net.
However, Palmer ended any slim hopes of a Villa comeback with a sensational effort from the edge of the penalty area, curling the ball beyond Olsen to wrap up all three points for the hosts.
Somehow, Chelsea failed to add a fourth late on. Joao Felix saw a smart shot well saved by Olsen, who also denied Noni Madueke from the rebound and was grateful to see Felix fail to finish off some penalty-box pinball.
