Whether or not it was a tactic by Emery, the hosts allowed Chelsea to have plenty of the ball and they thought they had levelled in the 16th minute.
Moises Caicedo played a pass over the top and Nicolas Jackson raced away to finish well past Villa goalkeeper Emi Martinez. Initial replays made it looked like Matt Cash had played the striker onside, but a VAR check ruled he had been slightly off.
Jackson later hit the base of the post with a header that he really should have buried. Cucurella picked out the Senegal international unmarked, but he narrowly failed to find the net.
Having survived a couple of scares, Villa doubled their lead shortly before half-time through Rogers. Cash played the ball to the winger, whose shot went through the legs of Trevoh Chalobah and beat Petrovic.
Villa Park erupted and the clinical strike from Rogers, who cost the Midlands club an initial £8 million from Middlesbrough, was in stark contrast to Mykhailo Mudryk’s first-half performance.
Mudryk cost Chelsea an initial £62m, but it was he, not Rogers, who looked like he had spent the first half of the season in the Championship.
Chelsea were without 12 injured players, meaning Pochettino had to name a barely unrecognisable substitutes’ bench. Villa suffered an injury of their own in the first half, with Youri Tielemans having to be replaced by Moussa Diaby.
And there was a further blow for the hosts, as Martinez had to be replaced by deputy goalkeeper Robin Olsen for the start of the second half. Martinez had required some treatment in his hamstring area and his absence seemed to unnerve Villa’s defenders.
Having threatened on a couple of occasions after the break, the visitors were gifted a goal just after the hour mark, thanks to sloppy play from Luiz. The midfielder was slow playing the ball out of defence and was robbed by Gallagher. He managed to work the ball out to Madueke, who buried a shot low into the bottom corner.
Source link
