CHELSEA had to rely on a Leicester City defeat to secure Champions League football for next season.
The Blues lost 2-1 away at Aston Villa as they were overtaken in the top four race by Liverpool.
But Leicester’s 4-2 loss to Tottenham saw Chelsea end up finishing fourth for the final spot.
Who was Thomas Tuchel’s best player today? And did anyone have a game to forget?
Here, Simon Phillips delivers his Chelsea player ratings…
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Edouard Mendy – 6/10
Largely a spectator for Chelsea, and there wasn’t a lot he could do for Villa’s first half goal before he was unfortunately taken off at half time with an injury.
Reece James – 6
Got beaten a couple of time out wide and this was far from his best performance, but apart from that he looked mainly quite solid.
Surprisingly went into central midfield after Jorginho was subbed off.
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Thiago Silva – 6
Will be annoyed with himself giving away the corner for Villa’s first half goal, but other than that he was his usual calm and solid self at the back.
Antonio Rudiger – 6
Reasonably quiet game from him really in the circumstances and he wasn’t allowed a lot of time on the ball.
He will be one of the many blamed for not tracking Traore’s run for Villa’s first goal.
Cesar Azpilicueta – 5
Another one who could be blamed for not tracking Traore, but the captain was actually Chelsea’s biggest attacking threat in the first half with all the creativity coming from him out wide on the right.
Let himself down late on with a silly red card for an arm on Jack Grealish.
Mateo Kovacic – 3
Shaky and clumsy at times, gave away silly free kicks and certainly didn’t look as good as he has been on many occasions this season.
Unsurprisingly subbed off midway through the second half.
Jorginho – 3
Similar to Kovacic, he was clumsy giving away free kicks and got a silly booking in the first half.
Awful game from him and he was subbed off not long after giving away a stupid penalty.
Ben Chilwell – 6
Again, not his best game at all when Chelsea really needed it.
He gave the ball away stupidly too often and lost concentration easily.
Scored Chelsea’s goal to pull one back late on.
Mason Mount – 6
Very quiet from him and he should have done much better with a couple of chances to score in the first half which could have put the game out of reach for Villa.
He got better in the second half driving for a Chelsea come back.
Christian Pulisic – 5
Awful first 45 minutes from the American, he was tackled too easily, his passing was poor, and his head didn’t look in the game at all.
Picked it up a bit in the second half thankfully and got a nice assist.
Timo Werner – 6
Frustrating is the word often used for Werner and he was yet again here, but this says how bad the rest of Chelsea’s attackers were when he was actually one of the better performers out of them.
SUBS: Kepa Arrizabalaga (for Mendy, HT) – 6
Didn’t have a lot to do apart from face a penalty, which was scored.
Hakim Ziyech (for Jorginho, 59) – 8
Positive impact when he came one and had a hand in Chelsea pulling a goal back.
Kai Havertz (for Kovacic, 65) – 8
Same from him, instantly made a positive difference in attack for Chelsea.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
