Chelsea trio lose it in Aston Villa defeat as star shoved to floor in furious bust-up

The main talking points and moments missed from Stamford Bridge as Enzo Maresca's Chelsea side fell to a concerning defeat against Aston Villa on Saturday evening

There was reason for Chelsea to be wary of Aston Villa pre-match. Not scared, but wary. After all, the Villans came into the trip to Stamford Bridge on a 10-man winning run in all competitions.

Unai Emery's side were the in-form side in the Premier League. But this was Chelsea, and this was Stamford Bridge. And in that first-half, the Blues looked like they knew that.

It was total dominance from Chelsea. If you are a fan of xG - and football supporters nowadays tend to use said statistics as a method of determining how well a team is attacking - then Aston Villa recording a grand total of 0.0 in the first 45 minutes tells you everything about how Saturday evening’s game was going.

There was, though, a sense of inevitability that Villa would get better. They couldn’t have been any worse, let's put it that way. Under the leadership of Emery, Villa, over the course of the last three seasons, have won more points - with 54 - than any other side in the Premier League.

Enzo Maresca, who was sitting not far behind football.london in Stamford Bridge’s press box as he was serving his one-match touchline ban, would have been all too aware of this. The half-time team talk surely would have been 'more of the same' but also a bit of 'be smart about things'.

All too often this season, Chelsea have been leading in SW6 but have ended up not recording all three points. The Blues have now dropped 11 points from winning positions in home Premier League games this season - which comes in at four more than any other team in the division. Maresca has now lost four home top-flight games when his Chelsea side have gone 1-0 up. Only Glenn Hoddle (five) has lost more as Blues boss.

So, there is undoubtedly a concern there. Why does this keep happening? Is it a lack of experience in the side? That seems the obvious answer but with the club’s model under the ownership of BlueCo, it does not seem like something that will change anytime soon.

Maresca himself, speaking in the post-match press conference on Saturday night, believes it could well be down to experience but refused to blame it on just one thing before he and his staff do a full analysis of the defeat.

"In this moment, it is difficult to analyse because we need to understand again why when we concede a goal we struggle to manage the game in a better way," the Chelsea head coach explained. "Again, it can be experience or it can be that we need to analyse and we need to understand that."

It was a bizarre evening at Stamford Bridge. The way the game swung towards Villa was quite remarkable given the domination we saw earlier on from Chelsea.

And as soon as Ollie Watkins equalised for the visitors, the game changed. Along with that, the Chelsea players seemed to lose their heads a bit. But the Chelsea players seemed fired up all game-long. Boubacar Kamara went down in the second-half, before Villa had levelled the game, rather softly and it left the Chelsea trio of Cole Palmer, Alejandro Garnacho and Enzo Fernandez absolutely furious with referee Stuart Attwell, who was not the most popular person inside Stamford Bridge.

It did, to be fair to the angry mob, look like a soft foul but all three of them were fortunate not to be booked by Attwell for their respective reactions. Ironically, Fernandez ended up being yellow carded for dissent, much later in the match. Liam Delap, too, just minutes after entering the pitch in the second-half, saw his name go into the book for arguing with the referee.

The chants of "are you [Anthony] Taylor in disguise?" came out at Stamford Bridge, which is never a good thing for a referee given the Chelsea supporters’ feelings towards the Premier League official. Attwell felt the wrath of the Blues fans throughout the game, and the Villa faithful, too, who felt as if the referee made a few bizarre decisions.

Chelsea can feel slightly aggrieved with Morgan Rogers managing to complete a full 90 minutes on the pitch. Inside 15 minutes, Rogers furiously shoved Marc Cucurella to the ground with the Villa attacker not happy with a challenge from the Blues left-back. No yellow card. Just a talking to.

Inevitably, Rogers was booked later on in the game for continuously tangling with Reece James, who was also shown a yellow, as Villa were preparing to take a corner in front of the Shed End. That, of course, would have been Rogers’ second booking, and that left a few supporters angry and confused.

Maresca, too, thinks his side should have been awarded a penalty early in the second-half - when the score was 1-0 - for a handball from ex-Blues defender Ian Maatsen. A cross came into the box, searching for Pedro Neto, but Maatsen blocked the ball with his arm. It was clearly his arm, which looked extended, but the Video Assistant Referee deemed it to be in a "justifiable position".

Maresca said: "It looks like a penalty but they decided no, so it is difficult. It is clear that is is handball and Pedro Neto is in behind, so also Pedro can touch the ball, can tap it in, but the referee decided no."

Questionable decisions, sure, but none of this should excuse Chelsea. These decisions did not lose them the game, but equally they didn’t help. Instead, what lost the Blues the match was their inability to react to Villa's changes in the way they played.

In the second-half, Emery made a triple substitution, with Amadou Onana coming on and Villa went to what looked like a three-man midfield, whereas in the first period it was more of a 4-4-2/4-4-1-1 from the visitors. From essentially the moment the Villa boss made said change, his side looked the better.

So that does fall at Maresca's door for not being able to react in the right way. Chelsea looked devoid of ideas and answers for what Villa did. This is not the first time this season either and that is a concern.

It felt like a game Chelsea could not afford to lose given the situation at the top of the table. On one hand, Arsenal and Manchester City are fighting for the title - everyone thinks that will be this season's top two, though Villa look like they have something to say about it at the moment. Chelsea are not there yet, and the supporters have been forced to accept this.

On the other hand, you have a Villa side looking more and more dangerous as time goes on, and a Liverpool team trying to muster together some sort of form. The race for the top four is going to be really difficult for Chelsea. Especially if they cannot find a way to manage matches.