VILLA 0-0 CHELSEA
Well, we’ve had better games, we’ve also had worse but aside from a decent ten minutes to start and another ten minute spell at the finish, this one wasn’t exactly an edge-of-the-seat job. Of course, we could point to the fact that this way off a full-strength Chelsea side that faced Villa but to be fair to them, they had a few first-teamers out as well and they still managed to keep a lid on us and make sure our poor record at Villa Park continues.
We started off well in terms of possession but Villa put a couple of swift counter’s together, first with Stephen Ireland putting it wide before Cech tipped a shot from Carew behind. Defensively, we looked a bit lethargic at times although never really threatened by the Villa attack but then the same was true in reverse, with us seemingly happy to knock it about in midfield without any real purpose.
The game threatened to step up a gear just before half time though, with Anelka taking a shot – only for it to end up high, wide, and not particularly handsome but at least we were exerting a little pressure – even if Kakuta’s skied shot emphasised we weren’t exactly going in for the kill. A late burst of pinball in our area ending with some top defending from Ivanovic to keep Stephen Ireland out and remind us the game was finely balanced before the break, brought an end to a pretty sedate first 45.
Zhirkov on for Kakuta at the break and for the opening ten minutes, Villa struggled to get out of their own half. The trouble was though, whilst we looked a little more purposeful, we failed to come up with anything to really test Friedel aside from a powerful Malouda shot from outside the area and nice little drop of the shoulder from Anelka with a right footed effort but in truth, they were both at the keeper. So for all our pressing in the second half, we weren’t really getting anywhere.
Realistically though, Cech could probably have gone for a tea break quite comfortably in the second half without being missed, so it was all pretty controlled from our point of view – albeit frustrating. Ivanovic almost changed that in the 77th minute with a thumping header. Unfortunately, the upright came to Villa’s rescue but we were unlucky not to go a goal up. Just 3 minutes later it was Villa ruing their misfortune though as Clark’s header hit the woodwork.
That little flurry aside, Villa looked to be settling for the draw, happy to soak up whatever we threw at them as Anelka did just that, hurtling forward with another header just glancing the post on its way out in the final minute. And just as Cech wondered why he’d turned up at all, he finally got a touch in the 91st minute, getting on the end of a Villa corner – money well earnt for this week then. Even Reo-Coker, clean through on goal having nicked the ball off McEachran in the 93rd minute, couldn’t force a day’s work out of our keeper, chipping the ball wide and ending the game with a pretty predictable 0-0 scoreline.
Overall then, points dropped on the road and with United dropping them at home earlier in the day it was a chance missed on our part. Yes, we had key players missing but the players we did have available need to develop the same killer instincts and clinical finishing if we’re going to keep some distance between us and the challengers to our title.
TEAM
VILLA: Friedel, Beye, Dunne (Clark, 12), Collins, Warnock, Reo-Coker, Petrov, Ireland (Sidwell, 85), Downing, Young, Carew (Delfouneso, 74).
Unused Subs: Guzan, Cuellar, Bannan, Lichaj.
CHELSEA: Cech, Ferreira (Bosingwa, 76), Ivanovic, Terry, Cole, Ramires (McEachran, 76), Mikel, Essien, Malouda, Kakuta (Zhirkov, 45), Anelka.
Unused Subs: Turnball, Bruma, Mellis, Borini
Blue is the colour
