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Chelsea vs Aston Villa: Three lessons learnt from chaotic cup tie

By Subhrajit Chowdhury

LONDON, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 22: Kepa Arrizabalaga of Chelsea celebrates with teammate Reece James after winning in the penalty shoot out during the Carabao Cup Third Round match between Chelsea and Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge on September 22, 2021 in London, England. (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 22: Kepa Arrizabalaga of Chelsea celebrates with teammate Reece James after winning in the penalty shoot out during the Carabao Cup Third Round match between Chelsea and Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge on September 22, 2021 in London, England. (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images) /
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LONDON, ENGLAND – SEPTEMBER 22: Saul Niguez of Chelsea tackles Jaden Philogene-Bidace of Aston Villa during the Carabao Cup Third Round match between Chelsea and Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge on September 22, 2021 in London, England. (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND – SEPTEMBER 22: Saul Niguez of Chelsea tackles Jaden Philogene-Bidace of Aston Villa during the Carabao Cup Third Round match between Chelsea and Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge on September 22, 2021 in London, England. (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images) /

1. Ben Chilwell and Saul Niguez are not ready yet

Tuchel was clearly in the mood to experiment in the EFL Cup. He gave starts to a lot of benchwarmers and thankfully, the plan did not backfire. Players such as Loftus-Cheek, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Sarr and Saul were given the nod start by Tuchel. While some of them performed well, others just performed averagely. Two players who were given the start but did not play according to expectations were Saul and Ben Chilwell. While the players did not perform poorly either, they failed to make an impact on the game and were mostly average all around the pitch.

For Chilwell, it was his first Chelsea start of the season. While some would have thought that the Englishman would give his best performance to take his first team spot back from Marcos Alonso, in reality, Chilwell played a bit poorly. He was playing in an advanced position just like Alonso, but he was not able to put in crosses, not able to fall back quickly and overall looked a bit out of confidence. His penalty in the shootout really summed up his performance well. He still needs a bit of time to recover mentally and Tuchel should ease him back into the squad. As for now, Alonso is playing much better.

Saul played better than his first appearance in the Chelsea shirt. However, even though he performed better, it was still not good enough. Yes, he was being more physical and chasing after the ball more, there was just no impact, no key passes and he missed two good opportunities, as well. The player has improved quite a bit. Nevertheless, he will need to perk up a lot more if he wants to challenge Mateo Kovacic or N’Golo Kante for a spot in the starting XI. Overall, while these players did not have bad games, they were not impactful and are not ready to play regularly.

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