Aston Villa played out a 0-0 draw against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and Clement Lenglet didn’t have his finest game in claret and blue.
In a pulsating FA Cup fourth-round clash, both sides squandered opportunities to settle the tie at the first attempt. John McGinn spurned Villa’s best chances, while an outstanding goalkeeping display from Emiliano Martinez saw him twice deny Cole Palmer and Noni Madueke.
Villa, in truth, were often caught in their own half by Chelsea’s high press. The hosts dominated 57% of the ball and at points in the first half, that statistic was up towards the 75% region.
With Unai Emery’s side looking to play on the counter-attack, they struggled to feed their forward players Moussa Diaby and Ollie Watkins with service.
Youri Tielemans on his return to the starting XI was a culprit of that. The Belgian started as a left midfielder, who was given license to drift inside, though he struggled to leave his imprint on the contest.
The former Leicester City maestro is widely known for his ability to create chances but failed to make any key passes for his teammates, made zero dribble attempts and missed one big chance, as per Sofascore.
Unfortunately, Tielemans wasn’t the only player who didn’t have his best game in claret and blue.
Centre-back Clement Lenglet had quite the horror show at the back.
Clement Lenglet was poor against Chelsea
Lenglet has proven he’s a reliable back-up defender but Friday night’s game demonstrated to Emery how much he misses Pau Torres.
The Spaniard, on his day, is one of the best ball-playing defenders in the Premier League and his ability to caress passes into midfield and spray them long have been desperately missed, especially at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea set out a plan to press Villa high up the pitch and this caused Lenglet to panic in possession, making it difficult for the visitors to play out from the back as the Frenchman gifted the hosts the ball several times.
The 28-year-old – who has been linked with a move to AC Milan – gave possession away eight times and made one error that led to a shot.
This was when he gifted the ball straight to Palmer, which forced Martinez into a point-blank save to deny the Englishman.
On a night where several Villa players didn’t paint themselves in a particularly bright light, Lenglet’s struggles to play out from defence caused Emery’s side the most issues and those wouldn’t have happened if he had Torres to call upon.
