Mauricio Pochettino: Can He Salvage The Season After 10-Man Chelsea Lose At Home To Aston Villa?

CHELSEA slumped to yet another defeat this Sunday, September 24, going down 0-1 at home to Aston Villa.

The Blues have now won only twice in their first seven matches under their new coach Mauricio Pochettino and find themselves occupying 14th spot in the Premier League table. Luton Town and AFC Wimbledon are the only two sides that the Argentine manager has managed to beat.

Today’s result gave the coach an even bigger headache after Malo Gusto was red-carded after 58 minutes. His badly-timed tackle caught Villa’s French full-back Lucas Digne on the ankle and did not really appear to be malicious. The ref waved a yellow at him but the inevitable happened after a VAR check was carried out.

With Chelsea already short on strikers, Nicolas Jackson also picked up his fifth yellow card of the season and the 22-year-old Senegalese international will now serve an automatic one-match ban.

There have been reports that the Blues are considering a move for Brentford’s Ivan Toney in January but until that time, they somehow have to kickstart their faltering campaign into life.

Ollie Watkins was the hero for Villa

Villa took the three points with a goal from Ollie Watkins in the 73rd minute. His initial effort was blocked by Levi Colwill but the striker managed to collect the ricochet and squeeze the ball into the net through the legs of Robert Sanchez from the tightest of angles.

Emiliano Martinez was Villa’s saviour on a number of occasions. The Argentinian keeper excelled in preventing both Jackson and then Raheem Sterling from scoring when they were through one-on-one. A glorious opportunity was also spurned by Enzo Fernandez who ended up slicing his shot wide of the goal.