“He literally cannot do the basics of football” - Fans slam 21-year-old Chelsea star after 2-1 loss to Aston Villa

Chelsea fans took to social media to slam Malo Gusto for his performance in their Premier League clash with Aston Villa on Friday, February 22. The French right-back had a poor outing as the Blues suffered a 2-1 defeat at Villa Park.

The Blues' recent form has been nothing to write home about. Hoping to turn the unwanted spell around, Chelsea started on the front foot and took the lead in the ninth minute.

Pedro Neto made a foray down the right wing, and his low cross evaded Emiliano Martinez’s outstretched arm and found an unmarked Enzo Fernandez, who tapped in from close range.

The home side reacted well as they started cranking up the pressure, but had to wait until the 57th minute for their efforts to pay dividends. Manchester United loanee Marcus Rashford set up Marco Asensio to restore parity for Villa after a lengthy VAR review.

The game could have swung either way as both sides exchanged blows in the following minutes. However, Rashford and Asensio once again teamed up as the latter latched on to the former’s cutback pass, which crept underneath Blues goalkeeper Flip Jorgensen and into the net in the 89th minute. The result meant Chelsea left Villa Park with zero points, which further dented their top four hopes.

Malos Gusto had a night to forget. The defender was the culprit for Villa’s equalizer as he failed to prevent Matty Cash’s pass from getting to Rashford.

Gusto also struggled to contain Rashford on the night after the Englishman was introduced at half-time. The 21-year-old full-back lost possession 14 times, committed one error leading to a goal, and none of the two crosses he attempted were accurate.

After the match, fans took to X to slam him for his performance. An X user wrote:

''You can’t blame the system for gusto now. He literally cannot do the basics of football."

Another tweeted:

''I’ve actually never seen a player regress so much from one season to the next like Gusto has."

''Gusto is the worst defender at the club rn. academy included'' @elsdawg wrote

''Nice one gusto. f*cking useless'' @Iewdawg wrote

''Every minute Gusto gets over Josh (Acheampong) is fucking criminal'' @willreyner added

''Gusto is genuinely the worst player in the top 5 leagues btw if life was fair Josh would be playing'' @roqueXI claimed

Another demanded for the sale of the player in the summer

''Can’t believe guys actually forgot Gusto’s worse attribute was crossing and yet were crying for him to overlap as an excuse for his sh*t performances'' @l4nd3rr wrote

''We all knew this was gonna happen. Gusto back-post btw is consistently poor,'' @AlexGoldberg_ chimed in

''Probably the toughest defeat of the season'' - Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca on his side's 2-1 loss to Aston Villa

Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca was dejected after his side's 2-1 loss to Aston Villa on Saturday. The Italian tactician believes they didn't deserve to lose the game. He also added that they failed to convert their chances.

The Chelsea boss said in the post-match press conference (via Football London):

"This is, for me, probably the toughest defeat of the season. The reason why is because the reaction from Brighton was brilliant, the performance was very good and unfortunately, in this moment, it is not enough. That's why it is a tough one."

"I don't think we deserved to lose the game, to be honest. In this league, you have to be clinical. The difference most of the time is inside of the box. Unfortunately at 1-0 up we had some chances and didn't score, at 1-1, we had some chances and didn't score. In the end, anything can happen and unfortunately we lost the game."

Chelsea remain rooted in sixth place on the EPL table with 43 points after 26 games.