Chelsea football club on a Boxing Day ensured all three points were secured against Steven Gerrard Aston Villa away. Despite their loss against Liverpool Man City, Aston Villa has proven to be a tough team against the big sides in the league to play against.
Thomas Tuchel side has been on a poor run of form in recent weeks after being hit by a injuries and covid 19 isolations and needed this win by all possible means to close the gap against Man City who earlier on in the day in their match against Leicester City opened a 9-points lead at the top of the league. A victory against Aston Villa will not only boost the team spirit but also keep them a touching distance from the league leaders.
The game started very well for the home side who really pressed Chelsea and had a lot of possession and an own goal from Reece James rewarded their effort despite not having any shot on target thus far but were unfortunate to concede a penalty some minutes later only for jorginho convert it to level up 1-1.
The second half started with Thomas Tuchel introducing Romelu Lukaku in the game. Lukaku has been out of injury since October has found it difficult to replicate his start of the season form as he struggles to fit into the Chelsea style. 11 minutes into the second half Romelu Lukaku made his presence felt when he scored a beautiful header from Callum hudson-odoi's crossed to put Chelsea in the front foot at 2-1. Tyrone Mings the Aston Villa captain who was set to mark out Lukaku had difficulties to deal with the Chelsea number one striker power and pace. Roman Lukaku exhibited an impressive unexpected form with his runs and one on one touches.
Aston Villa continue to search for the equaliser putting enormous pressure on Chelsea who seemingly sat back a little but a 92nd minutes penalty was all just Chelsea needed to seal out all three points as Romelu Lukaku made a fine run off Matt from Callum Hudson-odoi's pass ran towards the post, exploring the space in front of him but was brought down by Ezri Konsa who had no option of dealing with the situation. Jorginho once again stepped up to convert his six penalty in six games for Chelsea and becoming one of the three players to have scored nine penalties in a calendar year.
Thomas Tuchel during the post-match interview was very happy with the three points but was not quite impressed with the performance of his team. He then lashed out at the FA for not putting the players physical conditions into consideration unlike other European leagues where five substitutions are allowed and are on break at the moment but the Premier League despites tight fixtures play more games amid 19 isolation have to reconsider increasing the players substitutions number.