Thiago Silva concern
Having taken an early lead through Mason Mount, the expectation was Chelsea would go on and complete a comfortable victory over Aston Villa and put more pressure on Steven Gerrard. That didn’t happen – not initially – as the home side rallied and put Graham Potter’s side under immense pressure.
Villa were able to exploit the space between the wide Chelsea central defenders and the wing-backs. Marc Cucurella struggled on the left of the back three while Raheem Sterling, deployed nominally as a right wing-back, offered little defensive support to Trevoh Chalobah in his battle with Ollie Watkins and John McGinn.
