Bottles were thrown from the sparse crowd that turned out at Villa Park. There were calls for the owner to resign and the week just got even more gloomy for a side who have such a rich history in the league and in Europe. Manager Remy Garde had just relinquished his post and now defending champions Chelsea trampled all over them as they ran out comfortable winners. The result was never in doubt from the opening whistle as Chelsea made inroads in the opposition box with alarming regularity.
They broke the deadlock through academy product Ruben Lofus-Cheek, who scored his first league goal for the club. In a neat move, John Obi Mikel found the overlapping Branislav Ivanovic in space on the right, the cut-back was accurate and Loftus-Cheek struck the ball into the net, albeit through some help from Joleon Lescott’s shin. Loic Remy had to come off as early as the 22nd minute, which handed a debut to Brazilian striker Alexandre Pato. Immediately, he was called into action. In the final minute of the first half, Aly Cissokho bundled over him and Chelsea had a penalty.
Pato calmly struck the ball into the net, choosing power over placement as Brad Guzan was beaten. There were more attacks from Chelsea and Pedro deservedly got his first goal just minutes after the second half began. 15 minutes later, the Spaniard added another and it looked Villa’s misery reached zenith when defender Alan Hutton got his second yellow and was given his marching orders. For the time being, Chelsea have leapfrogged Liverpool to jump to ninth in the table. As for Villa, it’s just a waiting game to see how long they can prolong their relegation fight. Going down seems inevitable for the Birmingham based side.
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