A season that began with Chelsea not quite yet finished with their stockpiling of wingers continues at Aston Villa this evening with Enzo Maresca down to his last senior pair.

This is probably the toughest defeat of the season because the reaction from Brighton was brilliant,” Maresca said. “The performance was very good but in this moment its not enough. “The reason I said before its the toughest defeat of the season is that today our team was there.

But a bigger sign of his lack of confidence right now came when he was played through one-on-one against Emiliano Martinez. Palmer hesitated, slipped and failed to get a decent shot off, something unthinkable in the first 18 months of his Chelsea career.

Marco Asensio scored a 89th-minute winner as Aston Villa came from behind to secure a 2-1 Premier League victory over Chelsea on Saturday.

Chelsea missed the chance to move into the top four after suffering a 2-1 defeat to Aston Villa in the Premier League. The Blues enjoyed a dream start as Enzo Fernandez broke the deadlock after fine wing play from Pedro Neto. Trailing 1-0 at the break, Unai Emery turned to the on-loan Marcus Rashford and the January signing made an instant impact.