<\/p>\n
Brazilian duo Williams and Ramires saw red as Chelsea’s fourteen match uneaten run came to an end after a 1-0 \u00a0loss to Aston Villa.<\/p>\n
Fabian Delph scored the only goal of the in the 82nd minutes of the end encounter.<\/p>\n
Delph made a surging run through the middle before picking out Marc Albrighton down the left. The winger’s return ball was delightfully flicked into the far corner thanks to some sublime improvisation by the midfield man to give Villa a morale-boosting victory.<\/p>\n
Willian was dismissed for the Blues for a second yellow card and then Villa struck with eight minutes remaining.<\/p>\n
Ramires was shown a straight red by referee Chris Foy for a late challenge on Karim El Ahmadi and then Mourinho was sent to the stands as the Midlanders dented the leaders’ title hopes.<\/p>\n
Tempers threatened to boil over – just like they did in the reverse fixture – early on when Nathan Baker clattered into Fernando Torres and received a booking in the fourth minute.<\/p>\n
Willian received a yellow soon after for an equally poor challenge on Karim El Ahmadi.<\/p>\n
It was Benteke who created the only real chance of the first half when he turned and smacked a low volley an inch wide of Peter Cech’s goal.<\/p>\n
Nemanja Matic thought he had given Chelsea the lead just before the break, but Foy correctly chalked off the midfielder’s tap-in as he handled the ball before shooting.<\/p>\n
The intensity of the game improved in the second half and Chelsea were the main protagonists.<\/p>\n
Mourinho had soon enough of Torres and he replaced the Spaniard with Demba Ba while Andre Schurrle came on for Oscar.<\/p>\n
The Chelsea manager’s plans were then thrown into disarray when Willian earned a second yellow for pushing over Delph.<\/p>\n
Mourinho, who has never beaten Villa at Villa Park disagreed with the decision, venting his fury towards fourth official Moss.<\/p>\n
Time was slipping away, but Villa found the goal they craved.<\/p>\n
Delph could have made it a perfect evening with a second but instead he struck the bar.<\/p>\n
There was still time for more drama. Ramires was sent off for a sliding tackle on El Ahmadi. The Brazilian clashed with a furious Leandro Bacuna, who raced over to the midfielder and the pair jostled on the pitch.<\/p>\n
More confrontation followed in the final minute of injury time as Mourinho marched on to the pitch to vent his fury at Foy.<\/p>\n
The referee was having none of it and he ordered the Portuguese down the tunnel. After a minute of hesitation, the Chelsea boss finally walked off as play continued.<\/p>\n
The result means Chelsea surrendered the initiative to Manchester City in the title race.<\/p>\n
Manuel Pellegrini’s men, who beat Hull in the lunchtime kick-off, are six points behind Chelsea, but the fact that they have three matches in hand makes them favourites.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Brazilian duo Williams and Ramires saw red as Chelsea’s fourteen match uneaten run came to an end after a 1-0 \u00a0loss to Aston Villa. Fabian Delph scored the only goal of the in the 82nd minutes of the end encounter. Delph made a surging run through the middle before picking out Marc Albrighton down […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60,80],"tags":[37],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2739"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2739"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2747,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2739\/revisions\/2747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}