Blues blew chance of fourth position by losing 2-1 to Aston Villa to a last-minute heartache goal

Villa Park Picture by Paul Lagan

By Paul Lagan at Villa Park

Aston Villa 1 v Chelsea 2

Chelsea blew the chance to go back into Champions League contention by losing a lead and the three points thanks to a catastrophic error by goalkeeper Filip Jorgensen in the 90th  minute.

The west Londoners went briefly fourth when Enzo struck in the eight minute.

The Blues were dominant for the first 45 minutes, but drifted lower and lower by the standards required to win tight matches and Villa took over the second half.

Asensio's double sent the Blues to sixth in the league.

The Blues started brightly, twice getting behind the Villa defence. But both times, shots were blocked.

The excellent start was tempered by an I jury to Trevoh Chalobah which saw the centre-back replaced by Tosin on eight minutes.

Thirty seconds later and the west Londoners took the lead.

An excellent Moises Caicedo cross-field pass fed Neto on the right.

The Portugal winger raced to the byline and cut the ball along the six-yard line and Enzo was in-running to tap home.

Villa's first meaningful attack came on 19 minutes from a counter and Ollie Watkin's angled right-footer was on target, but Filip Jorgensen was positioned perfectly to block the effort.

Marc Cucurella then blocked a Watkin's effort two minutes later as the home side finally got themselves into gear.

Enzo was not too far away with a long-ranger curler, on 26 minutes, well set up by Christopher Nkunku, who won the ball off Matty Cash.

Chelsea were all at sea defence-wise on 30 minutes after Reece James lost possession of the ball. And Watkins's goal-bound flick was tow-poked out of the way by Jorgensen.

The end-to-end nature of the game then saw a deflected Cole Palmer shot inch wide of Emiliano Martinez's left post.

Watkins tried again on 36 minutes after a short James pass was intercepted by the striker, but his left-footed blaster smashed into the side-netting.

Villa decided to bring on Marcus Rashford at half-time, off went Ramsey.

Chelsea were unchanged.

It was Chelsea who had the first attack of worth in the second half, but Neto's was it a cross, was it a shot. Either way the ball went well wide of the Villa goal.

The home side had upped their pressure and that put the Blues slightly on the defensive.

Villa had the ball in the back of the net on 57 minutes when Asensio tucked home after excellent work by Rashford on the byline saw the Chelsea defence cut open. Cucurella tried to intervene but to no avail.

VAR had a look but Asensio's first goal for Villa stood.

Chelsea stuck to their task and did not cave in although it was looking increasingly likely the next goal would be from the home side.

But on 69 minutes, Cole had a curler which inched just wide of the goal – on another day it would have gone in.

Palmer should have scored on 75 minutes when he broke free, a slip hindered his attempt to loft the ball over Martinez, abut he did get a shot away, but Ezri Konsa got behind Martinez and block the goal-bound effort.

Maresca made his first substitution on 75 minutes taking off ineffectual Nkunku and bringing on on-loan Jaydon Sancho.

On the stroke of 90 minutes, it all collapsed for the west Londoners and it was a howler of an error by Jorgensen, who allowed Asensio's left-footed close-range effort to slip under his body.

Not even seven hours let alone seven added minutes were going to change the score.

The Blues are at home to bottom of the league Southampton on Tuesday. They won't be daunted

Teams: Chelsea: Jorgensen, Caicedo, Chalobah, Cucurella, Enzo, Gusto, James, Neto, Nkunku, Palmer, Colwill

Subs: Acheampong, Amougou, Dewsbury-Hall, George, Mheuka, Sanchez, Tosin, Samuels-Smith, Sancho

Villa: Asensio, Cash, Konsa, Maatsen, Martinez, McGinn, Mings, Ramsey, Rogers, Tielemans, Watkins

Subs: Bailey, Bogarde, Digne, Garcia, Jimoh-Aloba, Malen, Olsen, Rashford, Zych