Aston Villa, battered in the first period, overthrew Chelsea (2-1) on Saturday in London thanks to a double from Ollie Watkins during the clash of the 18th day of the Premier League to consolidate their third place, three days before a trip to the leader, Arsenal.
The Villans also signed an eleventh success in a row in all competitions, which allows them to remain three points behind the Gunners and one unit behind Manchester City (2nd), two teams also victorious this weekend.
The blow is tough for the Blues who are ejected from the top quartet by Liverpool.
Enzo Maresca’s men, who had only won one of their last five meetings, nevertheless wrapped up the match, forgetting to wrap it up before the break.
Dominant from the start of the match, the Londoners opened the scoring shortly after the half-hour mark following a corner from Reece James very slightly deflected by the Portuguese Joao Pedro, scorer of his sixth goal this season in the league.
Forced to stand back, Unai Emery’s men offered nothing offensively during the first 45 minutes, deprived of the ball by opponents (71% possession for the Blues) who scored nine shots to none for their visitors.
The entry into the game of Amadou Onana and Ollie Watkins, however, woke up Villa who equalized on the hour through the latter. And Watkins did it again in the 84th minute when he received a cross from Youri Tielemans to knock out the Londoners who completely lost track of the match in the last half hour.
