Chelsea vs Aston Villa: Five talking points

Ba can leave; another striker needed- SOS

Demba Ba was way off the mark

A cynic would argue that Ba’s selection had roots to the fact that Chelsea are ready to offload him and gave him a trial run for the other clubs to come calling. The Senegalese forward is rumoured to be on his way out of Stamford Bridge this summer, with Roma and West Ham two clubs linked with his signature.

But a manager, even as wicked as Mourinho, would never field a team to put a player in the window, rather than to win the game. On that front, the former Newcastle star made little impact. Despite working hard, Ba was kept quiet by the Villa centre-halves with relative ease for most part of the game and was caught offside on several occasions, failing to time his run to perfection.

Barring one bright moment on the stroke of half-time, where the striker controlled the ball well out of the air before scuffing a low shot at Guzan, Ba was poor.

With Ba having fallen down the pecking order, beneath Torres and Lukaku, it is certain the striker would leave.

While even Torres is desperately out of touch and Lukaku only young, Chelsea need to add a quality striker to their roster if the Roman Abrahamovic side are sowing dreams of a déjà-vu of 2004-05 and 2005-06.