As predicted, this game was nothing like the 7-1 thumping we gave Villa a couple of weeks ago but we still managed to bag ourselves a place in the FA Cup final thanks to goals from Didier Drogba, Florent Malouda and Frank Lampard.
Not much to say about a pretty lacklustre first half really. Villa had the better start and settled into the game whilst we never really looked to have found our feet. Not that that’s a surprise with the Wembley turf resembling a skid pan again. Joe Cole gave it a go but went just wide with his 20-yard shot on 11 minutes. But Milner responded minutes later flashing a shot just inches past Petr Cech’s right-hand post.
In all honesty, we didn’t seem to be able to get out of third gear and Villa were that against us to good effect with their counter-attacks. Fortunately for us, they didn’t offer anything to really test Cech although should have had a penalty with Mikel bringing Agbonlahor down in the area. Not for Howard Webb though, who might have been paying a little more attention to the shirt-pulling Agbonlahor was doing prior to the foul and gone for the ‘six of one, half a dozen of the other’ approach. Judging by the colour of the Villa manager’s face they, I suspect he didn’t entirely agree.
Villa – no doubt spurred on by John Terry’s recent comments – kept the tempo up though and we just didn’t seem to fancy that ,much, although Drogba, Malouda and Cole all looked lively enough, giving Friedel the odd bit of work to do here and there. Nothing doing though, so we went in all square at the break.
Villa started the second half well again and for the first 15 minutes, looked as if they might get something for their efforts, despite John Terry’s hard work trying to keep Carew quiet. Our first substitution in the 64th minute was predictable although completely unnecessary as Joe Cole made way for Salomon Kalou to the obvious displeasure of everyone but the Chelsea manager apparently. Personally, considering we seem to get sod all out of Deco unless it’s a piss-easy game requiring more flair than effort, I fail to see why it’s the hard-working Cole who’s always sacrificed but I digress.
Anyway, Kalou on and to be fair, he played his part with a tidy through-ball to Didier Drogba, for the corner that led to our opening goal. With Richard Dunne only heading his clearance as far as John Terry’s feet, the Chelsea captain mis-hit his shot but found Didier Drogba just six yards out – to signal another Villa demise. Because whilst we pretty much kicked on from here, Martin O’Neill’s men huffed and puffed before just about blowing themselves out.
Florent Malouda, who never stopped running for a second, finally got his reward in the 89th minute, banging in a superb cross from Michael Ballack and Frank Lampard finished the game off in the fifth minute of time added on from close range.
Overall then, if the 7-1 against Villa in our last meeting didn’t flatter us, the 3-0 against them today probably did. We didn’t play particularly well – until the last 20 minutes at least – although it’s fair to say our experience showed. Villa, on the other hand, did play well, but they just didn’t have enough to really threaten us – and it goes without saying Howard Webb won’t be on Martin O’Neill’s Christmas card list this year.
TEAMS
VILLA: Friedel, Dunne, Cuellar, Warnock, Collins, Downing, A Young, Milner, Petrov, Carew (Heskey, 81), Agbonlahor
Unused Subs: L Young, Sidwell, Delfouneso, Delph, Guzan, Beye
CHELSEA: Cech, Ferreira, Terry, Alex, Lampard, J Cole (Kalou, 64), Mikel, Malouda, Zhirkov, Deco (Ballack, 76), Drogba (Anelka, 79)
Unused subs: Ivanovic, Sturridge, Belletti, Hilario
GOALS
CHELSEA: Didier Drogba 67, Florent Malouda 89, Lampard 90+5
Blue is the colour
