Before this encounter at Villa Park, Aston Villa had a winning streak over the last three Boxing Day occasions.

The 3-1 victory helped Chelsea reach 41 points, equal to third place Liverpool – the club could not play against Leeds in this round because of Covid-19.

Jorginho kicked the penalty to seal a 3-1 victory for Chelsea.

In this match, coach Thomas Tuchel welcomed the return of Romelu Lukaku and Callum Hudson-Odoi, after recovering from Covid-19.

Chelsea dominated possession of the ball 62% of the time in the first 45 minutes, but rarely reached Aston Villa’s goal.

Three minutes later, the home team took the lead in almost the same situation.

Reece James’ own goal (yellow shirt – right) helped Aston Villa open the score in the match against Chelsea on December 26.

Chelsea also had to rely on their opponent’s mistake to equalize the score in the 34th minute. Hudson-Odoi cleverly positioned himself in the penalty area, forcing Matty Cash to commit a foul and receive a penalty.

After the break, Tuchel brought on Romelu Lukaku to replace Trevoh Chalobah.

Lukaku headed the score to 2-1 for Chelsea at the beginning of the second half of the match at Villa Park on December 26.

Lukaku continued to leave his mark in the second minute of injury time.

This is Aston Villa’s seventh defeat while leading in the Premier League in 2021, equal to the record of Everton in 1999 and Wigan in 2006. In the next round on January 2, 2022, Aston Villa will be a guest of

Squad

Aston Villa: Martinez, Targett, Mings, Konsa, Cash, Douglas Luiz, Sanson (El-Ghazi 76), Ramsey, Ings (Traore 73), Buendia (Chukwuemeka 74), Watkins.

Chelsea: Mendy, Chalobah (Lukaku 46), Rudiger, Thiago Silva (Christensen 52), Alonso, James, Jorginho, Kante (Kovacic 63), Hudson-Odoi, Mount, Pulisic.