Chelsea 0-2 Aston Villa: 3 underwhelming Blues

‘Cucu’ misjudged the flight of the ball and subsequently mistimed his jump, and in mistiming his jump he connected with the ball with the crown of his head, rather than his forehead, so the ball just bounced off his head. The ball was not too high for Cucurella at all: he mis-cleared the ball and played Watkins onside while doing it.

Ruben Loftus-Cheek (No. 12), Right wingback, England

Loftus-Cheek did many things wrong. He was caught in possession in the middle of the park on at least occasion. His distribution was very good, but his ball retention was poor, as weird as that may sound. The players found ‘RLC’ on the overlap several times but the tall Englishman didn’t make good use of the ball. He completed none of the six crosses he attempted. He also lost 5/6 of the ground duels he contested. In total, Loftus-Cheek won 1/7 duels. Speaking of poor execution, the Blues’ midfielder completed 0/3 dribbles, which is particularly poor when you consider that dribbling is one of his better attributes.

At the end of the day, the players have to do their jobs on the pitch, and there were many things the Blues did well. Yet there were also some crucial things Potter’s men did poorly , and that ultimately cost the Blues the game.