I don’t think any of us are naïve enough to think today’s game against Villa will be anything like the mauling we gave them last month. We know they’re a decent side and whilst we absolutely deserved the result we got against them, in terms of good and bad days, we were at opposite ends of the pole for that game.
For our part, after going out of the Champions League against Inter and throwing points away in the league against Blackburn, we bounced back with a 5-0 win at Fratton Park but desperately needed something from Villa to keep us on the right track. You’d have to say a 7-1 win not only did that but also gave us the momentum for our win over United last week as well.
As for Villa though, it must have been pretty mortifying. No one likes to lose games in any way but that wasn’t just losing, it was being total humiliation on the pitch and realistically, Villa are actually a better side than that.
That’s something John Terry is well aware of and having had a chat with wounded former team-mate Steve Sidwell, the Chelsea captain warns “The one thing that all us players have got to get out of our systems is the recent result against Villa. Before we beat Manchester United last weekend we talked about how determined we were not to let them do again what they did to us last time we went to Old Trafford, and it’s 100% certain that will be Villa boss Martin O’Neill’s approach. I’ve spoken to Siddy (Sidwell) since we beat Villa at home and he was already talking about the semi-final. He told me that Villa were fuming over the way that they got beaten and the way they played. It is going to be a totally different game. It is a bigger pitch at Wembley and they will probably have one or two more players back from injury as well, so we need to make sure when we go in to the game we forget what has happened recently and approach it the way we normally would.”
It probably isn’t going to help our cause that Terry managed to completely piss Martin O’Neill off after our last game by saying “We knew Villa would tire after 55-60 minutes and that if we kept passing the ball, spaces would appear and chances would come.”
Needless to say the Villa manager wasn’t happy at the implication that his side only have an hour in them and bit back “The truth is that it doesn’t stand up. In the previous game against Sunderland we were pressing. And we scored in the 82nd minute against Wolves. It just doesn’t stack up. My own view is that it’s a pretty idle comment. It’s the sort of comment you can make when you have won a game pretty convincingly.”
So if any of our players think the last game has any bearing on this one, then in a way they’re right because after the thumping we dished out in last month’s meeting, Villa and Martin O’Neill will be more intent than ever on coming out of this one with the Chelsea scalp.
Blue is the colour
