FRANK LAMPARD has fond memories of Villa Park, as this was the stadium in 2013 where he broke Bobby Tambling’s Chelsea scoring record of 202 goals.
The Chelsea manager was once again left in a good mood at the same ground as his team bounced back from conceding Kortney’s Hause’s opener to triumph with goals from substitute Christian Pulisic and Olivier Giroud.
For Lampard, this was a belated birthday present as he turned 42 yesterday and the three points strengthened the fourth-placed team’s Champions League hopes.
But the loss was a big blow to Aston Villa who remain in deep trouble but in truth, they could not really complain too much about the result.
This was only the second time in ten matches that Chelsea had won this season when conceding first.
And the only other time was their last away win, a 2-1 triumph at Arsenal in December.
Chelsea were incredibly dominant in the first half but not only in possession – which was 77 per cent – but also the number of chances they created.
It was great to see fit-again Ruben Loftus-Cheek feature for the first time in 13 months although he looked understandably rusty but Mason Mount was outstanding.
Yet after wasting a number of chances, it was unbelievable that Chelsea found themselves trailing at the break.
Both Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christiansen were guilty of some really poor defending from the set-piece to allow Hause to score his first Premier League goal.
When Hause scrambled the ball over the line, Chelsea legend John Terry must have become the first ever assistant manager to refuse to celebrate a goal.
Obviously aware that the TV cameras would have been on him, Dean Smith’s no 2 at Villa showed no emotion but in truth, he would have wanted to jump around all over the place.
With Chelsea not threatening at the start of the second half, Lampard made a double substitution in the 55th minute with Ross Barkley replacing Mateo Kovacic and Pulisic coming on for a tired-looking Loftus-Cheek.
Just five minutes later, Pulisic levelled with a decent finish as he did well to keep his eye on the ball following the cross from Cesar Azpilicueta.
And then just two minutes later, Giroud stuck a knife into Villa’s hearts with a shot on the turn although he was helped with a deflection off Conor Hourihane.
For Giroud, this was his 50th Premier League appearance for Chelsea and he was a surprise selection ahead of Tammy Abraham, although the pair were exchanged places with 10 minutes left.
In the fifth minute of injury time, tempers boiled over with Villa star Jack Grealish and Chelsea defender Rudiger shoving each other – with the former booked.
For Villa, this was a major blow and they certainly need something away at Newcastle on Wednesday.
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By: Dave Fraser
Title: Aston Villa 1 Chelsea 2: Super-sub Christian Pulisic comes off the bench to lead Blues to key win as Giroud finds net
Sourced From: www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/11918491/aston-villa-1-chelsea-2-pulisic/
Published Date: Sun, 21 Jun 2020 17:11:22 +0000
