Aston Villa 1-0 Chelsea
Chelsea crashed to an ultimately bad-tempered defeat, as referee Chris Foy disallowed one goal and dismissed three at Villa Park.
Red cards for Willian and Ramires were followed by a dismissal to the stands for Jose Mourinho – with a Fabian Delph wonder goal giving all three points to the hosts.
As per Jose Mourinho's team news of Friday, David Luiz and Ashley Cole were absent with injuries, while Fernando Torres returned following the muscular problem acquired warming-up for Tottenham.
The early chances went to the home side – Christian Benteke and Karim El Ahmadi ballooning balls over the bar, and Benteke just beaten to a raking long ball past the Blues defence.
Chelsea for their part, looked mostly efficient – which is probably the best thing one could say about first half performance that lacked any real edge.
Five minutes before the break, Chelsea claimed a lead – Nemanja Matic bundling the ball into Brad Guzan's net. But the officials pulled out a contentious infringement in the build-up, with an apparent handball by Branislav Ivanovic.
Chelsea's last eight league goals had all come in the second half, and they did look slightly more edgy in possession immediately after the break.
An Ivanovic cross was flapped-at by Guzan – who succeeded only in providing it to Eden Hazard.
The Belgian crossed it back into the box – for Joe Bennett to apparently launch at his own goal – Guzan belatedly saving that bizarre atempt.
Mourinho made two changes – bringing on Andre Schurrle and Demba Ba on for Oscar and Fernando Torres, who had both put in largely anonymous performances.
Prior to doing that he seemed to consider taking off Willian, who was on a yellow card. Afterwards, he perhaps wished that he had – as the player received a second caution, and walked to the stands with more than 20 minutes left to play.
It was a dismissal that raised more questions than it answered – Willian's misdemeanours looking minor.
And Chelsea suffered as a result.
Four minutes later Villa took the lead: Fabian Delph flicking home a beaut of a ball, after a Chelsea collective defensive switch-off.
And that was that: apart from the late flourish of cards for Ramires and Mourinho.
Championship races are decided by days just like this: City win with ten men; Chelsea lose with nine.
Perhaps Mourinho was right all along – Chelsea just aren't quite ready yet.
