Instant reaction to Villa's predictable loss to Chelsea

At Stoke City, home to Newcastle and Hull, at Liverpool, home to Arsenal, and at Chelsea. Before the season, that stretch looked as if it might be good for five or maybe six points. Aston Villa have ten from that run and are guaranteed to end week six in the top half of the table. Keep that in mind as you contemplate the 3-0 loss that the claret and blues just suffered at the hands of Chelsea.

The first goal was the result of some bad defending, but aside from that, Villa played Chelsea very evenly in the first half. In fact, if you throw that blemish aside, the defense was absolutely stellar for those 45 minutes. The second half was a bit more tough, but despite the fact that Diego Costa only got one goal, both can be placed at his feet. His first (Chelsea's second) was a perfectly placed header in which he got on the right side of Nathan Baker and the right side of an absolutely perfect lobbed cross.

The second saw Costa burn the Villa defense (much as he's burned everyone but Manchester City) only to be stopped by Brad Guzan. But the ball bounced off of the keeper, took an unlucky break off of Aly Cissokho, and Willian was there to poke it in.

So Villa got beaten by a Chelsea squad who could win the league by more than 10 points this year. They got beaten by the best striker alive. They got beaten in a manner that 25% of the league have already been beaten in, and in a manner that probably 80% of the league COULD be beaten in. There's no shame here. Villa weren't embarrassed, nor did they look terrible. The attack was anemic, but what do we expect at this point?

Let's all just forget this match and move on to next weekend. We've got 10 points in 6 matches and we're in the top half. That's not a bad start.