Frustrated Sherwood stays defiant after narrow Chelsea loss

Aston Villa manager Tim Sherwood is refusing to listen to speculation surrounding his future with the club after a frustrating defeat to Premier League champions Chelsea.

Diego Costa’s opener and an Alan Hutton own-goal cost the visitors in west London as Villa succumbed to a fifth straight league defeat despite causing problems for Jose Mourinho’s side.

Amid reports Sherwood’s fate could be sealed if Villa’s form does not sharply improve, the former Tottenham boss remained defiant but lamented Chelsea’s first goal, which came after a defensive mix-up from Brad Guzan and Joleon Lescott.

“I can’t worry about speculation. It’s business as usual for me, I haven’t heard anything otherwise, I’ll continue to do my best,” he told Sky Sports.

“The first goal in any match is so important and they never had to work too hard for that.

“When you make mistakes like that at the Bridge, they’ve got world-class players and you’re going to get punished.

“Then you’ve got an uphill task but I’ll take the positives out of the match – we took the game to them, dominated the first period, without opening them up, but we’ve created a few chances of our own.

“We gave ourselves an uphill task by gifting them the first goal. That is worrying and I don’t want to get used to it but we have to move on and learn from those mistakes because they are costing us at the moment.

“It’s always a concern when you’re not winning matches, we need to look at both ends [of the pitch] and continue to work hard to try put things right.”