Chelsea hit with huge fine for 'very dangerous' bottle throw at Aston Villa bench | OneFootball

A plastic bottle was thrown into the Aston Villa technical area, narrowly missing a player

Tensions were rising throughout the game, as Chelsea players and staff felt the visitors were time-wasting as they held on to a narrow lead. In an earlier incident, Villa set-piece coach Austin McPhee was seen deliberately throwing a second ball onto the pitch to stop a quick throw-in to restart play.

Chelsea said after the match that they would launch an investigation into the matter and where the object had been thrown from, and the Football Association followed suit.

The FA have now confirmed that the Blues have been fined £150k for the incident, which has been deemed “a disrespectful, irresponsible and dangerous way [to act] against his professional.”

Standard Sport understands that the FA or Chelsea were able to identify who threw the bottle from the Chelsea technical area, so no individual punishments have been made.

The official written reasons for the fine add: “The Commission noted that had a spectator thrown a bottle at or into a technical area it would be considered as being a serious act of violence, not to be tolerated at a football match.

“It is a very poor example [from a] person involved at the highest level of professional football in England.”

Chelsea gave up a one-goal lead to lose the match 2-1 to Villa, with Ollie Watkins scoring twice.

It proved to be the penultimate match as Chelsea head coach for Enzo Maresca, who left the club after the subsequent 2-2 draw with Bournemouth.