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Chelsea have been charged by the Football Association after a water bottle was allegedly thrown at the Aston Villa bench following December’s Premier League fixture.

The FA confirmed on Friday Chelsea had been charged with a breach of FA Rule E20.1 following a full-time incident at Stamford Bridge.

It is alleged that the club “failed to ensure its players and/or other relevant personnel positioned around the technical area after the final whistle did not behave in an improper and/or provocative and/or abusive way”.

FA Rule E20.1 states that clubs are responsible for ensuring that representatives do not “behave in a way which is improper, offensive, violent, threatening, abusive, indecent, insulting or provocative”.

Chelsea have until Monday, January 12 to respond to the charge.

Aston Villa were 2-1 winners over Chelsea during the December 27 fixture. Chelsea had led 2-1 at half time through Joao Pedro, before Ollie Watkins scored twice to secure all three points for Villa, marking an 11th win in a row for Unai Emery’s side.

“I think the goal we conceded was the turning point,” former Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca had said at full time. “Until the goal we conceded, we were completely in control of the game.

“Again it’s something that is not the first time that happened and when we concede a goal, even if we are winning and we concede a goal, we struggle a little bit with the management of the game and it’s something that for sure we need to improve.”

The match was Maresca’s penultimate in charge. He departed on January 1, with the 2-2 draw with Bournemouth his last game at the club. Liam Rosenior was appointed his replacement on Tuesday.

Ali Rampling is a Deputy News Editor at The Athletic. Prior to joining The Athletic, she worked as the Women's Football Editor at 90min. Ali attended Loughborough University, and originates from Ipswich. Follow Ali on Twitter @AliRampling