Brace of penalties from Jorginho and a Lukaku header see Blues come from behind to beat Aston Villa 3-1 at Villa Park

By Paul Lagan at Villa Park

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Aston Villa 1  Chelsea 3

Romelu Lukaku rushed from the substitutes bench at half-time and does best – score.

He also contributed to a fine 3-1 win at Villa Park by producing a lung-busting 30 yard run into the opposition’s penalty area, which resulted in him being hauled down for a penalty.

Jorginho dispatched the last kick of the game it with customary ease.

It was the Brazil-born Italian midfielder who dragged the Blues back in to the game after an unfortunate Recce James own goal after 28 minutes saw Aston Villa take the lead against the run of play.

Jorginho was spot on from 12-yards after Callum Hudson-Odoi was upended on 34 minutes.

The deserved three points cement the west Londoners in third place in the Premier League

With all the possession coming from the away side, the Blues were still culpable of getting hit on the counter-attack.

Silly loose balls in midfield contributed  to Villa’s first, meaningful attack on 11 minutes, which luckily to the Blues only ended up as a corner.

Three minutes later and Alonso gave the ball away. One quick pass saw Danny Ings zip past Thiago Silva. Again the Blues were fortunate that the striker’s shot was deflected away from goal.

While it doesn’t count as an official effort on goal, a speculative cross on the left by Mason Mount took a lift from a saffron gust and instead to going high and wide, took a turn towards goal, dipped and tapped the top of the Villa crossbar and away for a goal kick.

But on 27 minutes, Villa went in front, albeit with a large heap of good  fortune. Matt Target’s

speculative left wing cross, took a glancing deflection off the head of Reece James and the ball looped over the desperate grasp of Edouard Mendy and nestled into the far corner of his net.

The crazy game got crazier on 32 minutes when Marty Cash needlessly hauled down Callum Hudson-Odoi in the Villa penalty area.

Up stepped Jorginho who cooly slotted the ball home past Emiliano Martinez to level the score.

It was Chelsea’s first effort on goal

Chelsea head coach decided to bring on striker Romelu Lukaku at the expense of centre-back Trevoh Chalobah at half-time. It as the only change by either side.

I’m sure Tuchel wished he had a crystal ball, because three minutes into the restart, Silva tweaked a hamstring. He tried to run it off but lasted until the 53rd minute before being replaced by Andreas Christensen.

And it took just a couple more minutes for Chelsea to turn the game around.

With Lukaku on the pitch he became the focal point for the Blues attack. 

This allowed the wide players like Christian Pulisic and Hudson-Odoi something to aim for.

And that’s where the Chelsea second goal came from.

Following some calm possession, The Blues fed the ball to Hudson-Odoi on the left. He took one touch before clipping a left wing ball into the six-yard box. Tyrone Mings was on Lukaku, but the sheer strength of the Belgium striker was enough to put the England centre-back on the back foot. This allowed Lukaku to glance the inbound ball past Martinez to put Chelsea 2-1 up.

On 63 minutes, Tuchel replaced tiring N’Golo Kante for Mateo Kovacic.

Mount could have put the game to bed, when he broke free on 66 minutes, but instead of passing to either Lukaku or Hudson-Odoi, he chose to screw a left-footer wide of goal.

Hudson-Odoi should have scored on 88 minutes, but his low drive was parried away to safety by Martinez.

Lukaku won a penalty deep into added tome when he was hauled down by Jacob Ramsey after a lung-busting 30 yard run on goal.

It was down to Jorginho again and the midfielder placed the ball in the opposite corner this time. Martinez guessed right, but i=the shot was too powerful to be stopped.

Teams: Chelsea: Mendy, Rudiger, Alonso, Jorginho, Silva, Kante, Pulisic, Chalobah, Mount, Hudson-Odoi, James

Subs: Kepa, Christensen, Kovacic, Lukaku, Saul, Barkley, Ziyech, Azpilicueta, Sarr

Aston Villa: Martinez, Cash, Targett, Konsa, Mings, Luiz, Sanson, Buendia, Watkins, Ings, Ramsey

Sub: Steer, Traore, Tuanzebe, Trezeguet, El Ghazi, Hause, Chukwuemeka, Davis, Iroegbunam

Referee: Martin Atkinson