Mason Mount capitalised on mistakes from Tyrone Mings and Emiliano Martinez to give Chelsea a 2-0 win over hapless Aston Villa and increase the pressure on boss Steven Gerrard.

Graham Potter has now won all three of his Premier League matches, but had goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga to thank as much as anyone for making a string of superb saves at Villa Park to keep the hosts at bay in the first half.

Villa deserved more from their performance although Mings' terrible header allowed Mount to put Chelsea ahead in just the sixth minute.

Martinez later misjudged the midfielder's swerving free-kick from 25 yards to compound Villa's joyless start to the season which has seen them win just twice in the Premier League.

Player ratings

Aston Villa: Martinez (4), Cash (6), Konsa (6), Mings (4), Luiz (6), McGinn (6), Ings (6), Watkins (6), Young (6), Bailey (6), Ramsey (7).

Subs: Buendia (6), Coutinho (6), Dendoncker (6).

Chelsea: Kepa (8), Silva (6), Kovacic (6), Aubameyang (5), Loftus-Cheek (7), Chalobah (6), Sterling (7), Mount (8), Chilwell (6), Havertz (5), Cucurella (5).

Subs: Mendy, Jorginho, Pulisic, Broja, Zakaria, Gallagher, Koulibaly, Azpilicueta, Chukwuemeka.

Man of the match: Kepa Arrizabalaga.

How Villa slipped up

Mings handed Chelsea the perfect start, managing to head a looping ball in the Villa penalty area under no pressure straight to Mount, who finished expertly past Martinez.

Villa responded well and dominated the first half, but were unable to beat the outstanding Kepa. The goalkeeper could do nothing about Leon Bailey's close-range header which hit the crossbar although then made a superb double save to deny John McGinn and Jacob Ramsey.

His best save came just after the half hour when Bailey's perfect cross found Danny Ings inside the six-yard box and somehow his header was pushed over by Kepa, leaving Gerrard stunned as he squatted down on his haunches in disbelief.

An action-packed first period saw Ben Chilwell fortunate not to be sent off for a wild sliding challenge on Ramsey before Raheem Sterling hit the crossbar with a bending effort.

Potter made two changes at half-time to address Chelsea's poor performance, bringing on Kalidou Koulibaly and Cesar Azpilicueta which gave them more stability. Villa, though, were still on top until Martinez moved the wrong way for Mount's free-kick, allowing the strike to find the top of the net on his side.

Opta stats: Mings makes another mistake

- Steven Gerrard has now lost as many games with Aston Villa at Villa Park (eight in 19 games) as he did with Rangers at Ibrox (eight in 94 games) across all competitions. Indeed, since Gerrard's appointment, only Watford (12) and Norwich (9) have lost more home Premier League games than the Villans (8).

- Graham Potter has now won five of his first six games in charge of Chelsea (D1), including each of the last five - his joint-longest winning run of his managerial career (another five times previously).

- Since the start of 2019-20, no outfield player has made more errors leading to goals in the Premier League than Aston Villa's Tyrone Mings (5), with only goalkeepers Jordan Pickford (7) and David De Gea (6) making more overall in this time.

- Since the start of 2020-21, no goalkeeper has conceded more direct free-kick goals in the Premier League than Aston Villa's Emiliano Martínez (5).

What's next?

Aston Villa are back in action on Thursday when they travel to Craven Cottage to take on Fulham, with kick-off at 7.30pm.

Chelsea are also on the road in their next game, with the Blues heading to the Gtech Community Stadium to face Brentford on Wednesday - with kick-off at 7.30pm.

Graham Potter's side will then host top-four rivals Manchester United at Stamford Bridge on Saturday - live on Sky Sports - with kick-off at 5.30pm.

Teams

Aston Villa Martinez, Cash, Mings, Konsa, Young, Ramsey (Dendoncker 78), Luiz, McGinn (c) (Coutinho 74), Bailey (Buendia 66), Ings, Watkins
Subs Not Used Olsen, Chambers, Bednarek, Bogarde, Nakamba, SansonBooked
Booked
Goals

Chelsea Kepa, Chalobah, Silva (c), Cucurella (Azpilicueta 46), Loftus-Cheek, Mount, Kovacic (Jorginho 65), Chilwell, Havertz (Koulibaly 46), Aubameyang (Gallagher 58), Sterling (Broja 89)
Subs Not Used Mendy, Chukwuemeka, Zakaria, Pulisic
Booked Chilwell, Koulibaly, Mount
Goals Mount 6, 65

Attendance 41,754

Referee Robert Jones

VAR Stuart Attwell