Chelsea – Aston Villa: Watkins Waltzes a Comeback (1-2)

December 28, 2025 No Comments

Chelsea dominated the first half due to Aston Villa’s defensive passivity. João Pedro almost unintentionally delivered the opener with the slightest touch to guide Reece James’ corner kick. Adjustments to Villa’s off-ball intensity, along with key substitutions by Unai Emery, aided their comeback. Ollie Watkins rightfully stole the headlines with clinical and decisive finishes.

Tactical analysis and match report by Fahd Ahmed.


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Premier League football continued during the festive Christmas period, with the top four sides playing on Saturday. The highlight fixture of the weekend was Aston Villa’s trip to West London, as whispers of a potential surprise title charge were heating up after their ten-game win streak. With only three points separating them from table-toppers Arsenal, a victory against Chelsea would be a statement result to substantiate their inclusion in the race.

The Blues have been looking at their competitors below their league position rather than upward in the past few weeks. With patchy form recently, the gap between Chelsea and their competitors who are eyeing a Champions League qualification spot has reduced considerably. This situation makes each weekend a crucial game. That being said, a win on Saturday would also help shorten the distance to third-placed Villa to just four points.

Enzo Maresca only made two changes to the lineup that he fielded in the 2-2 draw against Newcastle United. Both alterations were at the back, with the Frenchmen Malo Gusto and Wesley Fofana benched for Enzo Fernández and Benoît Badiashile. This meant that Reece James featured at right-back instead of central midfield. Emery similarly made two changes. Ollie Watkins was benched for Donyell Malen, and Emiliano Buendia was preferred to Amadou Onana. This was not a like-for-like change, since Buendia operated as a winger, with Youri Tielemans dropping back into Onana’s position.


Villa’s defensive passivity results in a one-sided dominant display from Chelsea in the first half

The visitors were evidently passive without the ball, with barely any intent to press high. Structured in a 4-4-2 defensive block, Villa allowed Chelsea to comfortably organize in their 2-3-5 shape, with both fullbacks slightly advanced and on the same line as Moises Caicedo.

This opened up many avenues for Chelsea to create chances. Firstly, as seen in the image below, they could generate a central overload against Villa’s midfield pair. Even if the opposition tried neutralizing this with the center-backs stepping up, it would leave a hole in the backline that João Pedro could exploit with a run in behind.


Chelsea’s 2-3-5 in-possession shape versus Villa’s 4-4-2 defensive block opened up many opportunities to produce chances.


Furthermore, Maresca encouraged the players to engage in certain movements to disrupt Villa’s block. The Chelsea forwards in the half-space would attempt seam runs between the opposition fullback and center-back. Marc Cucurella and Reece James were willing to advance and offer supporting runs, there were a few positional rotations, and they also attempted straightforward runs past the Villa defenders.

With the visitors defending deep and clogging the center of the pitch, Chelsea were forced to rely on crosses from the flanks and half-spaces. Maresca still tried to generate overloads in these situations. The focus was on outnumbering the opponents at the back post – a tactic that Chelsea often rely on against similar opposition.


Chelea tried creating overloads at the far post when attempting crosses.


Interestingly, with Villa pinned back, there were also chances to shoot from long range. There were numerous chances for Palmer, Caicedo, and Fernández, with the Argentine coming the closest to scoring from those attempts.


Fernandez had a close attempt in the 18th minute from the edge of the penalty area with Villa defending low.


Despite their possession control and dominance, the home side had to rely on a set-piece to provide the opener. Chelsea’s strategy from the corner was evidently to prevent Emiliano Martínez from having room to come out and claim the cross, since he ranks as one of the best goalkeepers in the Premier League for success rate in percentage of crosses claimed.

James’ pass was aimed at the near post with the perfect flight, as it made it difficult for the Villa defenders to intercept. More importantly, Martínez was stuck and could not claim it. Although many thought that nobody got the touch, Pedro made the slightest contact to be considered the goal scorer.



Influencing the tempo with aggression

The Blues were easily the dominant side in the first half, and it seemed that Emery had to change Villa’s out-of-possession intensity if he wanted to change the scoreline. That did happen after half-time, as they pressed aggressively from the 4-4-2 block.

This affected Chelsea’s ability to play out from the back using short passes. Despite having numerical overloads against Villa’s frontline press, the defenders often opted for long balls rather than finding the free man.

To be fair, they were not always the ones accountable, since there were certain moments where the free player, which is Caicedo in the example above, did not proactively move out of the opposition marker’s shadow, preventing the passing angle from opening. It proved to be costly, as Badiashile, the on-ball player, was forced to go long, leading to a turnover from which the substitute Ollie Watkins scored.


Although it is easy to direct blame toward Badiashile for playing the pass that was intercepted, Caicedo should have done better to leave Youri Tielemans’ shadow and receive the ball.


Overall, Chelsea were forced into playing in a more chaotic tempo, which made them lose control over the game. By making it more transitional, Villa began creeping into the game and building more momentum.



Exploiting Chelsea’s man-oriented press and creating central overloads

Villa were much better with the ball in the second half, as they connected more passes and played through Chelsea’s high press, which involved certain left-sided triggers. Specifically, Cucurella would leave the backline, which initially had a player surplus, to press Matty Cash. However, there would be a brief few seconds where Cash was free. Martínez initially found it difficult to find the right-back, but this changed over the course of the game.


Chelsea used left-side triggers to transition from slightly zonal block to a man-oriented approach.


There was also a drop in defensive intensity from Chelsea, likely due to fatigue, around the 60th minute mark. This opened up more opportunities for Villa to play through the Blues. With Emery switching from a 4-4-2 in-possession shape to a 4-2-3-1, Chelsea also suffered midfield overloads, since Watkins pinned both center-backs. Although this did not pay off as much in settled on-ball phases, it was beneficial during offensive transitions, as Tielemans could be found free between the lines.



The drop in defensive intensity from Chelsea did lead to a few chances for Villa. Especially with the fullbacks encouraged to venture forward, there were a couple of chances where Pedro Neto and Alejandro Garnacho were caught off-guard.


Villa’s flying fullbacks caught the Chelsea wingers defensively off-guard a few times, which led to chances.


In the end, Villa’s pressure paid off yet again, as they found the winner. Watkins’ towering header, which crept over the substitute Malo Gusto, provided the crucial difference.


Takeaways

Chelsea suffered another defeat in a match where they led, which would be worrying for Maresca. The loss to Villa makes it 13 points that they have dropped from winning game states – more than any other team in the Premier League. With Liverpool beating Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-1, the Blues dropped to fifth place. If Chelsea cannot find consistency soon, their hopes for Champions League qualification may begin to slip away.

An eleven-game win run is truly a remarkable achievement for Emery, considering Villa’s awful start to the season. That tremendous turnaround in fortune now only leaves them three points behind Arsenal, who they face on Tuesday. Villa will go into that tie confident, with momentum behind their sails and a 2-1 win over Mikel Arteta’s men just a few weeks ago providing evidence that they can beat the best.



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As a football writer, Fahd objectively explores various talking points while leaning on data analytics to provide better context. He is also currently pursuing a professional diploma in football tactical analysis with Barça Innovation Hub (Universitas). [ View all posts ]

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