Key events
45+1 min We’re into the first of six minutes of added time.
45 min Chelsea pass it around again in the Villa half. They must be wondering how on earth they’re two down.
42 min Villa were on the counter, though it didn’t look that dangerous – they had a four-on-six. When the ball came to Rogers in the inside-left channel, he swayed inside and hit a clinical shot, just inside the near post. That’s his third in successive home games, apparently.
GOAL!! Villa 2-0 Chelsea (Rogers 41)
Another one! Very well taken.
40 min Free kick to Chelsea on the left wing. Palmer crosses, not high enough, and there’s an infringement anyway.
38 min It’s end to end now. Gallagher has a shot, trying to curl it past Martinez from the D, but it doesn’t have enough whip on it.
37 min Chance for Villa! Watkins races away down the left and hits a sharp left-foot shot which Petrovic does well to beat away.
36 min “I know it’s the Grauniad and all,” says Joe Pearson. “but I am loving your alternate spellings: McGann and Diane in particular. Keep it up!” Ha. The spellcheck does seem to be a little over-zealous tonight. I’ve changed about six McGanns, sorry to miss that one. And Diaby may well turn into Diary before the night is done.
34 min Chelsea hit the woodwork! Cucurella got away down the left and chipped a cross into Jackson, whose header did everything right – except find the inside of the bottom of the post.
32 min McGinn’s cross is easily cleared.
31 min Bailey wins a free kick on the right wing. McGinn to take it.
29 min Jackson, who has looked sharp, almost sneaks through but is well policed by the Villa defence, who are looking organised.
28 min Palmer has his second shot, from the D, and it’s blocked. Blocking is such a vital skill these days.
“Yes I’m a Chelsea fan,” says Lee Madden, “but really, VAR has to be the ultimate version of turning a good idea into a dreadful ‘solution’. I’d far rather the odd error than turning football into a procedural drama where we wait for lines to be drawn and fractions to be measured.
“Oh and WTF are the Chelsea owners doing even thinking about selling Gallagher. He’s been so consistent and looks great with his blond hair.”
27 min Tielemans is up and walking now, while still looking disconsolate.
25 min Tielemans is down and in some distress, perhaps as a result of that push from Gallagher. Moussa Diaby is about to come on, so it looks as if McGinn will drop back into the middle four.
25 min Yet more possession for Chelsea, culminating in a long shot from Caicedo – along the ground and straight at Martinez.
23 min At last, Chelsea find Palmer in the pocket. The ball from Mudryk is good and Palmer hits it first time, without his usual precision.
22 min Gallagher gives Tielemans a shove in the back and then smiles ruefully when the whistle goes, as if he was the injured party.
20 min Villa break but up goes the flag for another offside, against Watkins I think. His ball out to Bailey on the right was a bit too wide anyway.
19 min Before that, Villa messed up a good chance. Watkins broke brilliantly down the left and crossed to McGinn, who couldn’t sort his feet out for the shot and ended up passing it back. Watkins shot from the corner of the box, straight at Petrovic.
DISALLOWED! Villa 1-0 Chelsea
Yes, he was offside. And by more than a toenail.
GOAL?! Villa 1-1 Chelsea, maybe (Jackson 16)
Jackson runs onto a through ball and loops it over the advancing Martinez. But is he offside?
15 min Hardly any of these passes of Chelsea’s are going to their best player. They may be trying too hard to prove that they’re not Cole Palmer FC.
14 min More possession for Chelsea. But Villa are good at holding onto a lead: in the league this season, they’ve scored first 18 times and only ended up losing once, which I think was at Old Trafford on Boxing Day.
11 min Chelsea do get hold of the ball and make it into the box, where Martinez eases Villa out of trouble with a cool pass along the byline.
9 min Digne is unstoppable! As a free kick is swung in from the right, he gets the header, though it balloons upwards. Chelsea badly need to get some possession.
8 min Chance! Diane again, hitting the side netting this time, with his right foot.
Digne made the goal with a rapid overlap and cutback. McGann found a pocket of space and shot with his left foot, not all that strongly, but the ball bounced off Cucurella and trickled into the far corner. Cucurella was marking Watkins, who didn’t appear to get a touch.
GOAL!!! Villa 1-0 Chelsea (not sure who, 4)
Up the other end, the ball is in the net!
4 min Gallagher floats the free kick into the inside-left channel, where Badiashile has the first shot of the night. But (a) it’s a wild volley and (b) he’s probably offside anyway. And then …
3 min Chelsea pass it around at the back. Gallagher, injecting some urgency, plays forward to Caicedo, who wins a free kick by being the ham in a Villa sandwich.
2 min Chelsea get forwards as Palmer plays a sharp square ball out to the right, but the glimmer is extinguished as Jackson fouls Torres.
1 min John McGann kicks off.
The teams are out there, both in their familiar colours – claret and blue at one end, royal blue at the other. Unai Emery strides past the home fans with a thumbs-up and then joins Poch in a friendly hug.
On TNT Glenn Hoddle is talking empathetically about Mauricio Pochettino, the latest of his many successors as Chelsea manager. “He needs to know who his five or six big players are,” Hoddle says. “You need a spine. I don’t think he’s really got that yet.” But he and Joe Cole agree that another change of manager is not the answer.
“I’ve seen enough in Chelsea’s performances to believe that they can turn this round,” Hoddle goes on. “Next season starts now … They’ll be better next season than this.”
It’s already been a bad night for Chelsea. They went out of the Women’s Champions League as Barcelona turned a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 win.
“Good to see George Washington on the bench for Chelsea,” says Drew Chappell. “Maybe he can be the experienced leader they’ve craved all season.”
“What exactly did Dyche do to his tracksuit,” asks Brendan Large, “before he started wearing it to matches? That is now three wins in a row whilst he’s been wearing it.”
It’s Watkins v Palmer
This game pitches two of the top three goalscorers in the Premier League against each other. And if you take assists into account as well, it’s both of the top two.
For goals, Cole Palmer is level with Erling Haaland on 20, one up on Ollie Watkins. For assists, Watkins leads the way with 12, while Palmer is fourth-equal with nine. So, for goals and assists combined, it’s Watkins on top with 31, Palmer second with 29, and Haaland in the shade on 25, just behind Mo Salah on 26.
In other news, Everton have avoided relegation. They needed three points today and got them by beating Brentford 1-0 with a goal from Idrissa Gueye. Since capitulating at Chelsea, Everton have had three games at Goodison Park and won them all without conceding once. Everton go 15th, above Brentford: it were not for the points deductions, they’d be level with Brighton.
We have an email. “What does it mean,” wonders Stephen Taylor, “‘if the FA gets its way’?” Sorry not to be clear – I was referring to this story.
Teams in full
Aston Villa (possible 4-4-1-1) Martinez; Cash, Konsa, Torres, Digne; Bailey, Tielemans, Douglas Luiz, Rogers; McGinn; Watkins.
Subs: Olsen, Lenglet, Chambers, Hayden, Diego Carlos, Iroegbunam, Kellyman, Diaby, Duran.
Chelsea (4-2-3-1) Petrovic; Chalobah, Thiago Silva, Badiashile, Cucurella; Caicedo, Gallagher (capt); Madueke, Palmer, Mudryk; Jackson.
Subs: Bettinelli, Curd, Disasi, Chilwell, Acheampong, Gilchrist, Dyer, Casadei, George, Washington.
Referee Craig Pawson.
Teams in brief: Palmer starts, Luiz returns
Cole Palmer, who was enough of a doubt to be in italics on our predicted line-ups, has been passed fit, so he starts. No sign of Raheem Sterling. For Villa, Douglas Luiz replaces Moussa Diaby.
Preamble
Evening everyone and welcome to the last game of the day in the Premier League. It’s fourth against ninth, and they both know what they’re up against as they have already met three times this season.
So far there hasn’t been anything for the home crowds to celebrate. Villa won 1-0 at Stamford Bridge in the league as a goal from Ollie Watkins followed a red card for Malo Gusto. In the FA Cup, it was 0-0 at the Bridge before Chelsea went to Villa Park and won 3-1, with a flourish, in a match that, if the FA gets its way, will be the last of its kind for either side.
That was the start of Chelsea’s best spell of the season, a run of 12 games in which the only taste of defeat was the bitter one that came in the dying minutes of the League Cup final. Now they’re in a rather different place, after losing narrowly to Man City in the FA Cup and heavily to Arsenal in the league – though, in between, they did manage to beat Everton 6-0.
On league form there is nothing to separate these two sides. Since Christmas, both have won exactly half their games. And both have 11 points from their past six, which (at 5.15pm today) was enough to put them above everybody in the form table bar City, Arsenal and Newcastle. Let’s face it: we’ve reached the stage of the season when everyone is knackered and anything can happen.
Kick-off is at 8pm BST and I’ll be back soon with the teams.