Villa up to ninth after win at Stamford Bridge

Ollie Watkins and John McGinn gave Aston Villa a hard-earned win at Stambridge Bridge to move up to 9th as Chelsea moved into the bottom half of the table.

Action: Chelsea should have taken the lead after just five minutes through a mistake of Aston Villa’s own making. Emiliano Martínez’s short pass from inside his area to Boubacar Kamara was intercepted by Mykhaylo Mudryk. The Argentinian goalkeeper did well to quickly smother the ball and prevent the Chelsea man from scoring.

Then Villa had a great chance to score. With seven minutes gone, John McGinn found Ollie Watkins in behind the Chelsea defence and with only Kepa Arrizabalaga to beat. However, Watkins fluffed his lines and shanked his shot wide. 

McGinn himself hit the crossbar just before Villa eventually got the opener which came in the 18th-minute courtesy of a ball floated over the top. Marc Cucurella’s header only put it in the path of Watkins who this time made no mistake by dinking the ball of Kepa and into the back of the net.

It was a feat that Mudryk couldn’t replicate when Mateo Kovacic played the Ukrainian in. Mudryk’s shot was low but not powerful enough to beat Martínez.

@ Marc Atkins/Getty Images

Graham Potter’s team were on top in the early part of the second half but were caught out by a brilliant McGinn strike in the 56th minute. A Villa corner had been cleared but only as far as Jacob Ramsey who decided to lay the ball off to McGinn instead of taking on the shot himself and it proved to be a brilliant idea when the Scotland international slammed his shot home.

Despite the result, Chelsea fans can enjoy some good news – the return of N’Golo Kanté who made his first appearance for the club since August when he replaced Ruben Loftus-Cheek just after McGinn’s goal.

It was Kanté who probably had Chelsea’s best effort of getting back into the game but the midfielder’s low shot went just wide – he can blame rustiness for that.

Unai Emery’s team were able to competently see the game out in the final stages while Chelsea looked devoid of ideas and were left rueing wasted chances early in the game.

Big Picture: Unai Emery has overseen an impressive improvement in his Villa team that sees them in the top half of the table for the first time since August. It may not have always been pretty but they were able to put in a professional performance.

But for Potter, this feels like a step back after a few steps forward. Had Mudryk taken his chances then perhaps it would have been different but Chelsea certainly didn't do enough in the second half to find a way back into the game. Improvement is needed for the visit of Liverpool on Tuesday.

Man of the Match: John McGinn scored a brilliant goal to make it 2-0 but his overall performance is well worth the award. The tireless midfielder was all over the pitch and was unlucky not to have scored in the first half as well.

xG: Chelsea (2.28) 0-2 (0.75) Aston Villa

VICTORY AT STAMFORD BRIDGE! 😍 #CHEAVL pic.twitter.com/ZMJ7kEKIW5

— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) April 1, 2023