Chelsea limp into Champions League despite defeat at Aston Villa

Aston Villa 2-1 Chelsea: The hosts deservedly took all three points but Tottenham’s win at Leicester gave Chelsea the prize they wanted all the same

(Pool via REUTERS)

The sweetest of defeats for Chelsea, the most bittersweet of wins for Tottenham Hotspur?

It is remarkable how often their fates have been intertwined, and that contributed to an almost ridiculous sequence of events on the final day of the Premier League season. An unexpected victory at Leicester City for Chelsea’s biggest London rivals gave Thomas Tuchel’s side Champions League football when they really didn’t deserve it on the day, as they lost 2-1 to Aston Villa.

The raucous Villa Park crowd were loving it. The deflated Chelsea players evidently felt they were out, as they started to get indisciplined.

On another afternoon, it would have been called a complete implosion. Almost everything that could go wrong for Chelsea on the Villa Park pitch did, right down to getting reduced to 10 men after Cesar Azpilicueta was red-carded for hitting out at Jack Grealish, and VAR calls going against them.

None of it mattered, though, as everything had gone right for them at Leicester. Brendan Rodgers’s side had suffered an even worse collapse, a greater proportion of disaster.

It saved Chelsea, and may even have saved Tuchel’s job in the medium-term - especially given the nature of this game, and how it followed much of the season.

The German’s side should really have been ahead in what was a strong opening period, only for a frequent weakness to undercut them: their finishing. Or, just as often, where they were creating chances.

It was soimetimes as if they were lacking that extra attacker running in, that extra pass. Mason Mount should probably still have scored a big chance on 34 minutes, only to blaze ever.

The miss seemed to spark something in Villa, as well as a temporary turn-around. They sensed a vulnerability, maybe an anxiety.

This has been a persistent issue for Chelsea. When your scorelines tend to be in binary code, due to scoring so little, it means every game is on something of a knife-edge. Every game is dependent on your defence staying solid. It made this entire day an immensely tense occasion, and almost always on a knife-edge.

A specific issue in this game, that made it all more of a problem, was the absence of N’Golo Kante that was then compounded by the injury of Edouard Mendy.

John McGinn acted on that sense on the half-hour, just brushing Kovacic off the ball in the way he would never have done to Kante, to curl narrowly wide. It was almost as if Kovacic falling to the ground was the trigger for everything else to fall in on itself for Chelsea. There was certainly a quick cascade of negative developments - both at Villa Park and elsewhere - that looked set to see them definitely fall out of the top four for the season.

They really didn’t look anything like a Europa League side at that point, let alone a Champions League finalist.

How else to explain Villa’s key opening goal. Bertrand Traore was given the freedom of the Chelsea box, as McGinn simply picked him out with a simple pass for the forward to bounce the ball in off the crossbar.

It may have been a somewhat lucky finish but - as with so much this season - Chelsea left themselves exposed to a ball bouncing the wrong way.

Even by that point in the 40th minute, the day had turned for the first time. Both Liverpool and Leicester were in the lead, meaning Chelsea had to score.

Things just looked like getting worse. Even the temporary reprieve of Harry Kane’s equaliser for Tottenham Hotspur at Leicester - which would have still kept Chelsea in the four - quickly passed. That was there were penalties at almost the same time at both games. While Jamie Vardy was scoring a second for Leicester, Traore was proving too quick for Jorginho. The midfielder was lulled into a trip, even if it seemed an innocuous one. Chelsea were forced further back, as Anwar El Ghazi thundered the ball in.

Chelsea were at that point looking so meek in contrast. That was almost symbolised by Christian Pulisic’s bizarrely weak effort, that saw the ball bounce apologetically wide.

It was still a day of mere millimetres, though, as illustrated by the next few big moments. First, Werner had his by now customary offside goal.

Then, Ben Chilwell just about forced the ball over the line to make it 2-1. There was now more thrust from Chelsea.

Even more importantly than that, just as Chelsea seemed set to shoot themselves in the foot, Kasper Schmeichel somehow punched the ball into his own net at Leicester.

It was 2-2 there, and almost too good a reprieve for Chelsea. Could they really depend on that?

It would somehow get better, even as events at Villa Park got worse. While Chilwell was having shots defiantly blocked, and Azpilicueta was getting sent off to deafening noise, Leicester were collapsing.

That has ensured Chelsea didn’t have to do anything. They have just stayed in the top four by default. Deflation turned to almost coy celebration, and growing smiles.

You could say it was hardly the best preparation for next week's Champions League final - but that doesn't matter. All that matters for now is they're back in the competition. There were many moments in this season - and on this day - when it didn't seem likely. Chaos intervened, for one of the most cautious sides in the league.