- The Blues came back from being 2-0 down at the break to salvages draw at Villa Park.
After enduring a challenging week, Chelsea displayed resilience to secure a crucial point against Aston Villa, potentially impacting their fight for European qualification. Mauricio Pochettino’s side rallied from a 2-0 halftime deficit to salvage a 2-2 draw against Unai Emery’s Champions League contenders.
The Blues were looking to bounce back from their disappointing loss to Arsenal in their previous outing, but made the worst possible start
Despite falling behind 2-0 at halftime, with Morgan Rogers notching Villa’s second just before the break, Chelsea refused to crumble like they did against Arsenal. Instead, Pochettino’s determined squad fought back.
The momentum shifted further when Villa’s goalkeeper, Emi Martinez, was forced off due to injury, paving the way for Noni Madueke to pull one back in the 63rd minute. Captain Conor Gallagher then leveled the score with a spectacular strike past substitute goalkeeper Robin Olsen in the 81st minute.
Chelsea nearly snatched victory deep into injury time when Cole Palmer’s shot was deflected wide by Olsen’s legs.
Villa are fourth on 67 points, seven ahead of Tottenham Hotspur, who play title-chasing Arsenal in the North London derby on Sunday as one of their three games in hand over Villa. Chelsea are ninth on 48 points.
However, Chelsea’s performance suggests they will be a formidable team next season.
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Mauricio Pochettino hit out at VAR after Axel Disasi’s last-minute goal was chalked off, keeping the score level at 2-2 between Chelsea and Aston Villa at Villa Park.
Pochettino insisted: “I’m not frustrated. I am relaxed, I am calm, I want to say nothing wrong.”
However, the Chelsea boss shared his thoughts on the seismic impact VAR is having on crucial moments in matches in the English top-flight.
“Everyone that was watching the game will feel disappointed,” he said.
“Two different things the referee said it was a foul and disallowed the goal and then going to the VAR to confirm.
“It’s unbelievable, it’s ridiculous, it’s difficult to accept this kind of thing. In the [FA Cup] semi-final 2 weeks ago it was handball and it was no penalty and the referee didn’t check.
“It has damaged English football. It has damaged the image. Aston Villa players and fans didn’t understand why [it was ruled out].
“They said it was foul and if you see the challenge what happened if we go into every single challenge like this it is going to be a foul and we wouldn’t finish the game with 11 [players].
“We can talk about performance, we can talk about position we can talk about many things about football but this type of decision is damaging the games.”
“The performance was very good and we played really well,” he said. “In the first half we concede two goals so easy, so soft but we tried to change in second half and we didnt concede too much.
“To come here and play Aston Villa, another team fighting for top four, [I] was very pleased with performance of the team, players were good.
“I think that is what we expected and today was an opportunity against a good team like Aston Villa. Now we need to move on, the headline is going to be the disallowed goal in the last minute.”
