Aston Villa to lodge complaint over incident at Stamford Bridge that saw a bottle been thrown at their bench.
Aston Villa lodge complaint after bottle thrown at their bench at end of Chelsea win.
After Aston Villa’s 2-1 victory at Stamford Bridge, a bottle of water was thrown at their bench, prompting them to file a complaint with Chelsea.
Following a spectacular comeback that put Villa three points ahead of Arsenal at the top of the Premier League, there were celebratory scenes at the end. But when the final whistle blew, the away dugout was also doused with water as part of the festivities. It was unclear if the bottle was hurled from the crowd or by a member of the Chelsea bench. Chelsea plans to assist with the inquiry.
Villa’s happiness in winning 11 straight games across all competitions was unaffected by the incident. They had a weak first half, but just before the hour, Unai Emery made three substitutions to turn the tide of the match. One of the substitutes, Ollie Watkins, scored twice to give Villa an outstanding victory.
But before his team’s journey to Arsenal on Tuesday, Emery—dubbed a “tactical genius” by Watkins—refused to consider the possibility of a title challenge.
“We are playing against Arsenal and our mentality is to compete strongly,” he said. “And we are not going to speak about our target in the league until we are in game 34 because there are teams contending with a huge power to get points like Liverpool, like Chelsea. Of course we are performing very well, we are winning matches, we are competing fantastic. There is still another 20 matches to play.”
Chelsea has dropped 11 points from winning positions at home this season, in sharp contrast to Villa’s record of earning 18 points from losing positions. Enzo Maresca, who was serving a touchline ban while watching from the stands, acknowledged that Chelsea’s game management was lacking.
Maresca, whose team dropped to fifth place, stated that he didn’t mind Cole Palmer’s irate response to being replaced in the 72nd minute.
“He was working very good,” the Chelsea head coach said. “He was on the ball and off the ball, pressing, he was very good. We have another game in 48 hours, so he was good and we are happy that he’s back.” Maresca added that Marc Cucurella had to come off with a hamstring injury in the second half.