Masterpiece. Completely dominated in the first half, Aston Villa changed face with substitutions in the second half and overturned Chelsea, knocked out 2-1 by a brace from Ollie Watkins which kept Emery’s team among the title contenders. It was a sensational transformation for the guests at Stamford Bridge: no shots in the first half, danger and control of the game in the second half, with Watkins coming on in the 58th minute clearly the best on the pitch, well beyond the brace that brings him to 5 goals for the season. Emery was good at understanding what wasn’t working in his Aston Villa and finding the right moves to transform it, to make it worthy of a team that with 11 victories in all competitions equaled its best streak ever (the previous ones in 1897 and 1914…) and with the 8th success in a row in the Premier League confirmed that it was truly a contender for the title. It could also be the Chelsea of the first half, but the youngest team in the 2025-26 Premier League still lacks the maturity to be great. Enzo Maresca, disqualified and sitting in the stands behind the journalists, was unable via radio to give his deputies on the bench the right instructions to react to Aston Villa’s metamorphosis. And so that 1-0 at the end of the first half which the Blues were too close to (confirmed by a carom in the 37th minute from a corner by Reece James on João Pedro’s calf) turned into a reviewable second half and a bad defeat. The other side of the coin are the Villans fans who sing “we will win the championship” while applauding their heroes: after this victory, after the way they achieved it, it no longer seems so impossible. Even if on Tuesday Emery’s team will host league leaders Arsenal and will once again have to show that they did not arrive in the title fight by chance.
