After a long, and definitely strange season, Aston Villa’s 2020/21 Premier League curtain call saw us host Chelsea at Villa Park in front of a limited crowd.
With 11th place showing significant improvement having survived by the skin of our teeth last year, we will all be left wondering what might have been given how our form tailed off at the turn of the year, but it’s another big summer for the club now as surely next year, European football will be the aim.
But back to today – could we end on a high and give Thomas Tuchel’s side a tickle?
It didn’t look like it. It was an incredibly poor start from us and Chelsea dominated without causing much of a problem. Just ahead of the half hour mark we slowly started waking up and Bertie Traore and John McGinn will know they should’ve done better with their efforts – but at least we were getting into the game finally.
We then got on top of the game and it was all us, and the pressure finally told from a well worked corner routine as Bertie ghosted in and put it in the top corner. 1-0 – here we go, as the goal totally rattled them and their discipline went out the window – the second half was going to be interesting.
Chelsea came out bright but didn’t have a chance to make it count as we matched them, and Bertie quickly won a soft penalty and Anwar El Ghazi made no mistake to make it 2-0.
Chelsea did have the ball in the net, but Werner was clearly offside, so it was rightly scrubbed out.
Sadly, their next wasn’t as Konsa lost Chilwell behind him and he put it in to make it 2-1. Interesting final 20 minutes in store but frustratingly that was Martinez’s record gone – and he deserved it this season.
With a second wind, Chelsea had more of the ball but still didn’t really do anything with it and we more than managed them. Chukwuemeka came on, as did Ramsey and got stuck in nicely, but Marvelous Nakamba lived up to his name and finished the game as many’s Man of the Match.
If Matt Targett takes most improved player of the season, Nakamba isn’t far behind him given what we’ve seen when he’s played.
Chelsea then imploded, well Azpilicueta did, giving Jack a bit of a left hook, and he was off for an early bath.
It was certainly an interesting final day of football given events elsewhere as well.
2-1 full time, 11th place finish – the improvement we all wanted on last year and who knows what might have been without our Covid issues and the way that hit our form. Two good results to end the campaign though, so momentum in our favour and now onto the summer and with the right additions, there’s no reason why Europe won’t be an achievable aim or maybe even higher.
Well done…now better next year please.
Chelsea MotM
Marvelous Nakamba
Bertrand Traore
Kortney Hause
Matt Targett
Previous Article:
Sloppy Villa Pay For Poor 2nd Half Palace Showing – Match Stats
Villa Park
Premier League
23/05/2021 4:00 pm
Attendance: 10000
Referee: Stuart Attwell
Aston Villa | Chelsea | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Traore (43), El Ghazi (pen 52) | Chilwell (70) | ||||||
Martinez | Mendy | 45 | |||||
Konsa | James | ||||||
Hause | Thiago Silva | ||||||
Mings | Rudiger | ||||||
Targett | Azpilicueta | ||||||
Traore | 73 | Kovacic | 66 | ||||
McGinn | Jorginho | 60 | |||||
Grealish | Chilwell | ||||||
Nakamba | Pulisic | ||||||
El Ghazi | 79 | Mount | |||||
Watkins | Werner | ||||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
Heaton | Arrizabalaga | 45 | |||||
Taylor | Alonso | ||||||
Douglas Luiz | Christensen | ||||||
Wesley | Zouma | ||||||
Elmohamady | Giroud | ||||||
Davis | Hudson-Odoi | ||||||
Ramsey | 79 | Ziyech | 60 | ||||
Philogene-Bidace | Havertz | 66 | |||||
Chukwuemeka | 73 | Gilmour |
Game Statistics |
||
6 | Goal attempts | 23 |
3 | On Target | 7 |
2 | Corners | 9 |
11 | Fouls | 12 |
3 | Yellow Cards | 4 |
0 | Red Cards | 1 |
29 | % | 71 |
Well, what a season that was. Some wonderfully high highs and some awfully low lows. Liverpool at home deserved to have stands packed with fans. Arsenal away 3-0 win, one of my favourite stadiums. We played the inaugural prem game there way back when. Who scored the first goal there? The beard, Oloff Mellberg. Good pub quiz question anywhere but north London. Mid table cemented whatever we did on the final weekend. We won anyway. I also learned that a glancing blow from a Chelsea player can floor Jack more than a sucker punch from a City thug. A season when we managed to brush aside four of the so-called super six. Three of whom don’t have a European cup in the cupboard. First team squad looking solid, academy producing gems, tip top coaching staff, proper recruitment policy. I can’t wait for the Euros to be out of the way so we can get on to next season. The future is bright and it’s claret and blue.