CHELSEA’s fans mirrored the mood of dysfunction and crisis hanging over the club by opening this dramatic FA Cup night at Villa Park with a loud lament for lost owner Roman Abramovich.
It did not last long, cut off in full cry as Conor Gallagher’s crisp finish at The Holte End instantly brought songs of a different kind, setting the tone for Chelsea’s finest moment of this mess of a season under manager Mauricio Pochettino.
Chelsea’s form has been so dismal that any talk of victory in this fourth-round replay at Aston Villa was placed into the bracket of an FA Cup shock – not exactly Maidstone United winning at Ipswich Town level, but a shock nonetheless.
How wrong we all were. The sound of a script being torn up could be heard at Villa Park inside 20 minutes, so unexpected was this Chelsea performance and outcome.
Chelsea’s desperate plight when they arrived here made this outstanding 3-1 win, fully deserved after a superb team display, so much sweeter in a stadium where Villa have won 13 games and lost only two in all competitions this season.
The stock of co-owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali, and to a much lesser extent Pochettino, had sunk so low that Stamford Bridge echoed to praise for Abramovich and former manager Jose Mourinho when Chelsea scraped the barrel losing 4-2 at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers on Sunday.
Yes, it was that desperate.
There was even an unwanted – unwanted by Chelsea and Pochettino at least – social media intervention by Isabelle Silva, wife of defender Thiago Silva, when she posted on “X” after the Wolves debacle: “It’s time to change. If you wait any longer it will be too late.”
Mrs Silva apologised before kick-off while Pochettino insisted the reason Mr Silva was sitting behind him on a bench at kick-off time was because of “performance and balance”, not as a punishment for his wife’s – her words – “outburst”.
Raheem Sterling joined Silva with a watching brief, paying the price for a season that has gone into sharp decline after a bright start, especially in two poor performances in the heavy defeats at Liverpool and at home to Wolves.
