Chelsea head coach Graham Potter has insisted that Aston Villa made his team ‘suffer’ in their 2-0 win at Villa Park on Sunday. Mason Mount’s first two goals of the season handed the Blues all three points in the West Midlands, ending Villa’s unbeaten run of four games. Steven Gerrard’s side had chances in the game, but came up against a brilliant display from Chelsea goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalga. The Spaniard denied Leon Bailey, Danny Ings and John McGinn with impressive saves. The defeat leaves Villa 16th in the Premier League table, while Chelsea and Potter extended the gap between themselves and Manchester United to three points in the Champions League places. After the game, the Solihull native expressed his delight at his side’s performance, but did heap praise on Villa for theirs.
Graham Potter said: “We’re obviously delighted with the result because it was a hard-fought game. Aston Villa made us suffer, certainly in the first half. I thought we started off ok but lost our way a little bit in the second half of the first half. We needed Kepa at that point and he made some fantastic saves. In the end, Mason, in the end, made the difference. I thought we were better second half, we were more stable. It isn’t easy for us with the number of games we’ve played; to come from Milan to come here and Aston Villa have a lot of quality on the pitch and can cause you problems at any point. We’re delighted with the three points, delighted with the clean sheet and happy with Mason and Kepa, in particular, to help us over the line. That is going to be the story: different players will have to step up and today they’ve done it.”
