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Chelsea’s 10 league victories this season had all come against teams in the lower half of the standings, but this defeat caused them to fall to 11th.
A European spot is now just two points away for Villa, who have climbed up to the ninth place, one point behind Liverpool in eighth.
Soon after the game began, Emery’s team nearly gave Chelsea the lead when goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez rolled the ball short to Boubacar Kamara, who was taken out of the game by Mykhailo Mudryk.
But, Martinez stopped the Ukrainian when they were one-on-one with the World Cup champion from Argentina.
Villa came back fast, with Watkins dragging a shot wide before McGinn curled a shot that hit the crossbar in the 15th minute.
Yet in the 18th minute, the in-form Watkins scored the game’s first goal after capitalizing on a careless header from Chelsea goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga.
Martinez maintained Villa’s advantage by blocking Kai Havertz with a low dive to his left.
Despite being in the lead and playing attractive, aggressive football, Chelsea was unable to capitalize on their efforts.
Compared to Chelsea’s 27, Villa had just five shots on target for the entire game, but crucially, they converted on two of them.
With a skillfully executed curling effort from 25 yards out, Villa captain McGinn doubled the lead.
After defeating Chelsea on April 1, 2023, Villa moves into the top half of the EPL.
Chelsea vs. Aston Villa
During the English Premier League football match between Chelsea and Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea’s English defender Ben Chilwell (L) challenges Aston Villa’s English defender Ashley Young (C) for the ball. Image: AFP
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With a 2-0 victory at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, Aston Villa moved above Chelsea and into the top half of the Premier League standings.
Ollie Watkins gave Villa an early advantage before John McGinn, fresh from his standout performance in Scotland’s shocking Euro 2024 victory over Spain, made it 2-0 in the 56th minute with a magnificent goal.
Chelsea was booed off the field by their own fans at full-time, which caused them to plummet into the bottom half of the table and put more pressure on Blues manager Graham Potter.
Villa has now won 16 points on the road, a total matched only by champions Manchester City during that time. This was the Birmingham club’s sixth away victory since Unai Emery took over as manager in October.
Chelsea’s 10 league victories this season had all come against teams in the lower half of the standings, but this defeat caused them to fall to 11th.
A European spot is now just two points away for Villa, who have climbed up to the ninth place, one point behind Liverpool in eighth.
Soon after the game began, Emery’s team nearly gave Chelsea the lead when goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez rolled the ball short to Boubacar Kamara, who was taken out of the game by Mykhailo Mudryk.
But, Martinez stopped the Ukrainian when they were one-on-one with the World Cup champion from Argentina.
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Villa came back fast, with Watkins dragging a shot wide before McGinn curled a shot that hit the crossbar in the 15th minute.
Yet in the 18th minute, the in-form Watkins scored the game’s first goal after capitalizing on a careless header from Chelsea goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga.
Martinez maintained Villa’s advantage by blocking Kai Havertz with a low dive to his left.
Despite being in the lead and playing attractive, aggressive football, Chelsea was unable to capitalize on their efforts.
Compared to Chelsea’s 27, Villa had just five shots on target for the entire game, but crucially, they converted on two of them.
With a skillfully executed curling effort from 25 yards out, Villa captain McGinn doubled the lead.
The only bright spot for Chelsea was seeing defender N’Golo Kante, who won the World Cup with France in 2018, come off the bench in the 57th minute and make his first senior game for the Blues under Potter after being injured since August.
