TYRONE MINGS cost Villa three precious points but the price for troubled boss Steven Gerrard could be even greater.
The defender’s catastrophic second-minute error put his team on the back foot as they battled to rally round for their under-pressure manager.
What was an unbeaten run of four games is now one win in seven despite a much-improved performance.
Mings also played a key role in Chelsea’s second half goal that condemned Gerrard to even louder taunts from the visiting fans who keep him as a pet hate.
There were boos at the end but no calls for his head as some were in the away end at Nottingham Forest last Monday.
Were it not for a series of outstanding saves from Kepa in the Chelsea goal Gerrard would be cradling a vital point at least.
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But when your own players conspire to let you down just when they are needed most there is little that can be done about it.
In the first attack of the game Chelsea left back dropped a speculative cross into the Villa box and Ming totally muddled his headed clearance.
Instead of sending the ball back to the halfway line, he got his angles wrong and the ball landed at the feet of Mason Mount who drove home a cushioned left foot volley in front of the famous Holte End.
You didn’t need a lip reader to understand what Mings was saying to himself. Don’t even ask what Gerrard was thinking.
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And in the 65th minute another rush of blood conceded the free kick from which Mount scored his and Chelsea’s second and pushed Gerrard closer to the sack.
It was hard cheese on Villa who pummelled an out–of-sorts Chelsea with problems of their one only to come away empty handed.
On a personal level, with England manager Gareth Southgate watching from the stands, Mings will have seriously damaged his own faint hopes of making the World Cup next month.
Gerrard made only two changes to his team from Monday’s scrambled draw at Nottingham Forest when the first calls for his head were heard from the stands.
But there was a vastly different complexion to the performance from Villa, back on home turf.
Mings’ error aside, John McGinn, Danny Ings, Jacob Ramsey and Ollie Watkins were handed chance after chance to draw level in the first half.
For all Chelsea’s confidence from a run of four wins on the trot, Mount’s early strike failed to spark a rush of blood and a rash of threats on the Villa goal.
With crock Reece James out of the side, the right hand edge of Graham Potter’s side was a huge weakness.
Raheem Sterling was handed the task of understudy right wing back in place of James and the little winger could not have looked more out of place.
So much so that barely half an hour in, Potter was forced into an emergency reshuffle and Ruben Loftus-Cheek took over.
It was still not enough to ease the nerves and a double substitution at half time saw Cesar Azpilicueta and Kalidou Koulibaly coming on in place of Marc Cucurella and Kai Havertz.
Azpi became the third man to fill the Chelsea right wing back role in less than an hour – even your average Chancellor of the Exchequer gets longer in the job.
Concerned Potter sent on help for his once-maligned keeper Kepa, who had kept his team in it with four cracking saves in the first half.
The pick of those was a world class dive on his line to put one hand on a ferocious low drive from Ramsey right in the middle of a Villa mass assault on the Chelsea area.
Spaniard Kepa had only just fist pumped away an equally powerful effort by McGinn in time to recover and drop to the deck with his right hand out to push Ramsey’s grassroots level drive onto the post.
Leon Bailey had already grazed the bar with a header by that time and soon after Kepa thwarted an Ings shot at his near post.
Ings should still be cursing how he didn’t finally breach Kepa’s line when he dived to meet a Bailey cross with a bullet header.
Yet again Chelsea’s in-form and in-luck keeper was perfectly placed to block the ball from point blank range.
Chelsea managed just one serious threat to Villa’s goal other than Mount’s goal before Potter rang the changes again on what was a poor day for his superstars.
Sterling clipped the top of the bar with an eye-catching curling chip from a dummy by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang who was largely anonymous and taken off after 58 minutes and replaced by Conor Gallagher.
Mateo Kovacic was gone soon after as Potter struggled to get his XI right.
He was fortunate to have a full team on the pitch by the time Mount thumped in number two with 25 minutes left.
Ben Chilwell’s studs-up attack on Ramsey’s ankle from 90 degrees was dangerous.
A challenge worthy of at least a second look by VAR even though ref Robert Jones deemed it only worth a yellow card.
Chelsea rode their luck and Potter will know it.
There were some who thought the free kick given their way for Mings’ foul on Mount was harsh.
Maybe the England midfielder overdid the reaction a bit but Villa’s hapless defender was asking for trouble by swishing his leg out in front of an advancing player so close to goal.
Academy graduate Mount has been scoring free kicks from such positions since he first joined Chelsea aged eight and was filmed bending one over the wall.
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This was a copybook effort.
But Villa keeper Martinez should have done better, taking a step forward too far so that he was unable to recover when the ball flew in over his head to seal victory for Chelsea.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
