Aston Villa 0 Chelsea 3
The scoreline flatters Chelsea, every honest Blues fan will admit it.
The positives: we were fantastic during the first 45 minutes. Defensively immaculate from front to back. Chelsea weren’t exactly at their best and unforced errors littered their play, but take nothing away from the Villa boys who all knew exactly what they had to do and carried it out to the letter.
Of course, you know a major game officiated by Howard Webb would not be without controversy. Somehow he managed to turn away a nailed on penalty call early on when Gabby was dragged down right in front of him. All I’ll say is that we should have been awarded a penalty. You still have to score them, but I’m sure we’d all back James Milner to have put us ahead.
Yes, it was an astonishing display of incompetence from Webb, but it would be foolish to claim we’d have won it from there. It would certainly have had an impact, but there was a lot to play and Chelsea showed their true quality in the final half hour or so.
In the end, it was a touch of fortune that sent Chelsea ahead. Richard Dunne’s 65th minute headed clearance from a corner fell to John Terry just outside the area who scuffed his driven shot wide, but straight to Drogba who just had to shape his body to re-direct the ball into the net.
With Villa now chasing the game and having expended a great deal of energy already, it was always likely that Chelsea would be able to punish us. It took until the 89th minute for Florent Malouda to double the lead though when he snuck in at the far post to deftly volley past Brad Friedel. Credit where it’s due. It’s something we lacked throughout the game – a deadly delivery and cool finish.
Frank Lampard added the third deep into injury time, after the minimum 4 added minutes had been played for what it’s worth. I know, it’s a minimum, that’s why I said it. It’s 3-0 in the record books, but that really just reflects Chelsea’s ruthless streak more than their part in this game.
That said, it would be unfair to describe Villa as “huffing and puffing”, but for all our dominance, we never really stamped any real authority on the game. Yes, we were clearly the better side for much of the game, certainly the first half, but we didn’t really control it. That’s a subtle, but key difference.
However, despite what the scoreline says, MON’s men certainly looked to put the ghosts of the 7-1 defeat behind them and gave an account of themselves that they can be proud of. I’m proud.
We still lack a real goal threat, someone looking to get on the ball and influence the game when we can’t find a breakthrough. The bench still doesn’t offer much in the way of options either.
And again, for anyone who stopped by for the live blog; my sincere apologies. I always use 2 computers and 3 screens to keep track during games, but I arrange the set up in different ways depending on whether the video feed is coming over the internet or through through the TV. Today it was the TV, but for reasons best known to the executives, they elected not to cut anything when the previous programming ran long and broadcast the game on a 5 minute delay. I wasn’t able to switch things up in time.
It’s never happened before and I can’t describe how frustrating it was. I don’t do live blogs all the time, hopefully the next one goes much smoother. Unfortunately, that won’t be the FA Cup final.
So we fall back on the old cliche of being able to concentrate on the league. MON will certainly need to find a way to pick the boys up one more time for the last push. That’s what they’re paid for though and there’s everything to play for.
Once again, we have every reason to be extremely proud of our club, but they just weren’t quite strong enough. We’ll get there though.
Oh, and finally, the travelling Villa fans are also more than worthy of a special mention. Once again you did us proud, thank you!!
UTV!!
[Pic Credit: Fandfeedr]
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Contrary to a certain blogger who plays his usual game of hinting that we were rubbish (but never directly saying so), I thought we played well until the goal.
Biggest problem was that we never looked like scoring, whereas they always looked a threat imo.
Drogba off for Anelka?
This is the difference.
I’m saddened, but not distraught, as the lads played well.
Indeed, better than I expected.
I spoke to a nose mate of mine and he conceded it wasn’t a 3-0 game.
Says it all.
No doubt the aforementioned knob will heighten his MON out campaign
“No doubt the aforementioned knob will heighten his MON out campaign”
nah. he lacks the minerals to ever nail his colours to mast. he’ll just continue in his usual duplicitous manner. someone once described his blog to me as “sub-tabloid horseshit” and that’s exactly what it is. he’s a conman, nothing more.
the sun might be the UK’s best selling paper, but it’s still just a comic with boobs.
Oh, I forgot.
The fans embarrassed Chelski, big time.
Well done lads.
indeed. our travelling support has been fantastic for the last few years. an absolute credit to the club.
something i forgot to mention here – the pitch. what an absolute joke. it was worse than the carling cup final. apparently the 10th time it’s been relaid this season?? wow, something’s seriously wrong!!
Agreed, an utter disgrace.
But it’s what you get when the “Home of football” whores itself to every penny it can get in the way of rugby and concerts etc.
Disgraceful, imo.
The reason I heard (Butch Wilkins) was that it was caused by being watered while it was hard underneath????????????
Well, why water it then FFS?
I’ve never understood watering the pitch and it never used to happen.
It can only be to speed the game up and hide the British game’s lack of technical skill imo.
Thought O’Neill got the tactics spot on and in the first half with both Downing and Young working back in tandem with our full backs we didn’t give them a sniff. We were so well regimented that they were forced to play in front of us and on more than one occasion the final ball went harmlessly out of play. It was impressive stuff.
We were denied a nailed on penalty but this is not surprising. Two Wembley appearances against members of the big four and the refs fluff crucial decisions to our cost.
I thought Carew caused them all kinds of problems but our final ball at times just wasn’t good enough. Carlos was outstanding and Warnock always offered himself as an attacking option.
In the second half they came into the game a bit more but we were still comfortable and Carew almost got a decent connection from a corner. Their goal was really tough on us, Dunne probably should have got more air on the headed clearance, but then for Terry to scuff the shot and Drogba to turn it in was heartbreaking and we really didn’t deserve this.
After this we had to take a few risks and fair play to them they caught us ruthlessly at the death with two goals. 3-0 was harsh. I was proud of the display.
I have one or two concerns and the first is James Milner. His touch and close control really need to improve if he is going to be a real top class midfielder. I was never comfortable watching him on the ball and he always looked rushed and about to cough possession. People are putting this down to tiredness but I think that he just really needs to work hard on his touch and control and it could be that he finds his natural position is as a defensive midfielder.
We are lacking strength in depth and this will be addressed. When we needed to call on some one from the bench to change things our options were really limited. There is young talent but they are not ready yet. Heskey brings some good attributes to our play but it was always unlikely he would make a big impact.
So we were beaten by the Champs elect, but I am not too down hearted and with a bit of fine tuning and investment we are not too far away. Keep up the good work Martin.
pretty sound analysis there. i can find little i’d disagree with.
i think your observation about milner’s comfort level on the ball is fair too, although i’m not sure i follow the suggestion that he could fill a DM role.
it might be that he appears rushed because that’s simply his high octane style and all he really needs to learn is how to relax a little. in that sense, there’s something he could have learned from gareth barry who was quite adept at buying himself space and time with little more than his body positioning.
he’s got the attitude, the vision and range of passing, he just needs to chill out a little and realise that he can become our midfield general if wants to.
Dan,
Thanks as always for your comments and analysis. You may recall we had a discussion about the officiating in the Carling final – does this change your perspective at all? The real question for me is did Webb not see it as a penalty, or did he see it well, but for some reason, decide he would not call it.
I don’t think the officials are corrupt. But is there at least a subconscious bias in favor of the Big Four? Or against having a game “decided” by a penalty (as if not calling it decided it any less).
Same question regarding Terry – he is not “supposed” to be redcarded, because he is Terry, it seems. I agree that is absurd to consider whether the victim is a potential English national player – is it more acceptable to do this to someone else? But you have to at least wonder what the call would be if a frequently carded player (for a relegation-level team) had done that.