Ollie Watkins and John McGinn help Aston Villa add to Chelsea’s misery

For a mid-table evening sideshow to follow an afternoon of thrills and spills at the top and bottom, this was still high-class Premier League entertainment. And between two shy managers, neither rock-star quote machines, both offering steadiness over turbulence, it was Unai Emery who prevailed over Graham Potter.

Emery’s quiet, technocratic approach continues to win approval with Villa fans while Potter remains Chelsea’s uneasy fit, his team’s recent revival forgotten with this reverse, where his opposite number’s careful gameplan paid off.

Villa’s success, though, owed much to Chelsea’s panicky, poor finishing. Where Ollie Watkins was cool in scoring the first and John McGinn powerful and precise with the second, Chelsea’s hoicked a myriad of shots wide, incapable of turning their dominance of possession into goals.

Villa were able to climb over Chelsea in the table, a significant achievement considering where Steven Gerrard left them. The second-city club have ambitions, too, their own venture-capital dollars to spend. And they can now look up rather than down.

Though Villa kicked off a place ahead of the nine-team relegation glut, they did so eight points clear, level with Chelsea, having collected more points than anyone save for Arsenal, Manchester City and Manchester United since Emery’s arrival in October.

In a week where Thomas Tuchel went public on his continuing heartache at being separated from his Chelsea “family”, Potter had reintroduced Mykhailo Mudryk, the Ukrainian having missed the Everton game. Playing mostly off the left of Chelsea’s revolving attack brought Mudryk into the orbit of the evergreen 37-year-old Ashley Young. An early mix-up between Ezri Konsa and Young presented Mudryk with a chance for