A frustrated Roman Abramovich left his seat at Villa Park early yesterday after Chelsea conceded their second goal two minutes from the end of their first Barclays Premier League defeat since January.

The Chelsea owner, reportedly thwarted in his bid to sign Ronaldinho from Barcelona last week, vacated his place in the Villa Park directors’ box upon Gabriel Agbonlahor sealing Aston Villa’s victory with a late goal. He stopped only briefly to accept a handshake from Doug Ellis, the Villa president. A Chelsea spokesman reported that the Russian billionaire subsequently made his way down to the dressing room to commiserate with the players afterwards although he did not manage to meet his manager.

“The owner leaves the stadium when he wants to leave,” Jose Mourinho, magnanimous in defeat, said. “I went to see England versus Germany and I left the stadium because I wanted to run away from the traffic.”

Zat Knight, on his Villa debut after a tumultuous week in which he was taken in by police to help with questioning after a drugs raid on his mother’s house, scored at the start of the second half and Mourinho was critical of his team’s defending.

“We cannot concede a goal from a corner in the second minute of the half,” the Chelsea manager. “We had a game plan and had a good conversation at half-time to remind ourselves. So we cannot concede like that.”

Chelsea might have had a penalty in the second minute when Martin Laursen appeared to impede Shaun Wright-Phillips, but Mourinho was phlegmatic. “You have to ask Mr Hackett [the head of PGMO] or Mr Clattenburg [the referee],” he said. “If it was a penalty, maybe we get an apology tomorrow.”

Mourinho, whose team lost only three league games last season and yet still finished second to Manchester United, added that he believes the gap between the top four in the Premier League and the pack is diminishing. “There are a lot of good teams,” he said. “There is a big improvement in the teams after ‘the four’ so I think it [the title race] can be more normal; the other teams can win games. They spend money, they improve so it is more difficult to play against them.”

After the thigh injury on Friday that could rule Frank Lampard out of action for four weeks, Didier Drogba limped off with a knee problem, leaving Chelsea to finish with ten men, although Mourinho was unable to offer an assessment of the injury to a striker Martin O’Neill, the Villa manager, called “the best in the world.” Steve McClaren, the England manager, was not present for a game in which Gareth Barry and Ashley Young, the Villa players, enhanced their chances of playing for England.