Chelsea FC: 5 Lessons Learned Against Aston Villa

Roberto Di Matteo's Chelsea showed guts as they scored twice in the last nine minutes to claim a 4-2 win over Aston Villa.

An Aston Villa side still in shock following Stiliyan Petrov's retirement as he fights leukemia. 

Chelsea should have won by a larger margin, as they did take 20 shots. 

Here are five lessons learned from a Fernando Torres inspired win over Aston Villa. 

5. Fernando Torres' Inefficiency in Front of Goals

A £50 million valued forward like Fernando Torres needs to have a killer instinct. 

For the best part of two seasons, he's lacked that characteristic in front of goals, which is the main reason why he has struggled so much. 

David Luiz played a beautiful ball, which split the Aston Villa defence, yet it was no surprise that Torres failed to score. 

Four minutes later, he had his shot blocked when the Torres of old would have faked the shot and scored. This happened again in the 23rd minute. 

Yes, he did score today, but he could have scored four. 

What grade would I give him against Aston Villa?

B+: Great finish, a flick on header which led to Branislav Ivanović's second and importantly, Torres worked hard. 

	Torres	Robin van Persie	Wayne Rooney
Goals	3	26	21
Shots per goal	16.33	5.31	5.71
Assists	4	9	4
Goals Scored/Created Per Game	0.28	1.13	0.96
Key Passes Per Game	0.9	2.4	1.6

* Premier League only. 

4. Juan Mata's Influence

It was so frustrating to watch André Villas-Boas waste Juan Mata out wide when the Spaniard kept drifting into the centre. 

I could never understand why Villas-Boas didn't play Mata centrally but thank goodness Roberto Di Matteo is tactically switched on. 

It's taken a few games for Mata to finally dominate as the central attacking midfielder in Di Matteo's 4-2-3-1. 

Mata's incisive cross allowed Branislav Ivanović to score. The Spaniard was withdrawn with 16 minutes remaining, presumably to avoid injury ahead of the UEFA Champions League game against Benfica. 

First Half
Passes	27
Pass percentage	96
Long passes percentage	100
Shots created	3

Second Half (29 minutes)
Passes	15
Pass percentage	91
Long passes percentage	100
Shots created	1

3. Frank Lampard the Deep-Lying Playmaker

Perhaps Frank Lampard is to Roberto Di Matteo to what Gianfranco Zola was to Carlo Ancelotti. 

In case you're unaware of what I'm referring to, Ancelotti couldn't fit Zola into a Parma team comprising the likes of: Gianluigi Buffon, Lilian Thuram, Fabio Cannavaro, Néstor Sensini, Dino Baggio, Enrico Chiesa and Hernán Crespo. 

Ancelotti would either play Zola out of position or not play him at all. So what happened? 

Zola waved arrivederci to the Serie A and became the reason why I support Chelsea. 

Lampard should play as an attacking midfielder, but Di Matteo wants a conductor like Juan Mata. 

Being the pragmatic person he is, Di Matteo has figured that Lampard would probably impact the game more than Raul Meireles. 

That is why Lampard is operating in a deep-lying role. 

Surprisingly (given his reported behaviour this season), he was tactically disciplined and after 70 minutes, hadn't taken a single shot. 

I do wonder when Lampard will clash with Di Matteo over his role. 

2. Ashley Cole's Deterioration

Eric Lichaj is no Dani Alves, but why was the American an influence? 

Ashley Cole should have shut down Lichaj, instead the left-back was asleep when the American scored. 

Chelsea supporters may not want to admit it, but Cole has been a liability this season. He's still a good left-back but "world-class" is not an accurate description. 

1. Complacency

The Chelsea under José Mourinho closed games, but the Chelsea of this season has been complacent. 

5-3 loss to Arsenal	Led 2-1, conceded three goals in six minutes.
2-1 loss to Liverpool	Conceded in the 87th minute
1-1 draw to Wigan	Conceded in the 88th minute
1-3 loss to Aston Villa	Conceded two goals in last 10 minutes
3-3 draw to Man United	Forfeited a 3-0 lead
2-1 loss to Man City	Conceded two goals in last 12 minutes
1-1 draw to Valencia	Conceded in the 87th minute
2-1 loss to Leverkusen	Conceded in the 91st minute

Chelsea allowed Aston Villa back into the game even though Alex McLeish's men were terrible for the majority of it. 

Ruthlessness is needed against Benfica. Otherwise brace yourself for European heartache. 

Please read 11 Most Beautiful Goals Scored by English Footballers. 

Statistics courtesy of WhoScored.com.