Chelsea vs. Aston Villa final score and instant Analysis: This team is bad

Villa were probably the better side for the first 35 minutes or so.

Then Brad Guzan passed the ball to Willian, Diego Costa scored, and it all went to hell.

A second Costa goal — or an Alan Hutton own goal off a big deflection — early in the second half effectively sealed up yet another Premier League loss for Aston Villa, this time at the hands of Chelsea.

Sigh.

Kieran Richardson started ahead of Jordan Amavi, which was just a really, really stupid decision from Sherwood, who probably needs to be sacked.

Here’s the thing with Villa this year:

They haven’t played particularly poorly on the course of the season — in no way have Villa been one of the league’s three worst sides.

But whenever things go well for a while, one of two things happens:

1. Tim Sherwood makes a dumb tactical decision that costs Villa points.

2. Villa’s players make a dumb on-pitch decision that costs Villa points.

Today was the second, but it’s not as if Sherwood wasn’t leaving a bit to be desired — Richardson starting was odd, while Jordan Ayew was again played out of position, on the left wing, keeping him from being truly effective.

Villa never got much out of Rudy Gestede, which is more a tactical error than anything that’s Gestede’s fault.

But things are dumb.

Swansea is next week, and probably a must-win match for Villa, who have Spurs, Manchester City and Everton in the three League matches following that.

This team is very bad.