Aston Villa v Chelsea Post-Match Thread

[gti2win]

Just got back, i thought ireland did well, he always looking/asking for the ball but we never got it to him enough,  when we did you can see msotly did good things with it, Suprised @ cuellar not coming on from dunne tbh, clarke looked ropey with some wayward passes initally but seem to steady down as the game went on, downing had another good game hopefully good news for the rest of the season. Ash looked a little out of the game after moving back out onto the wing, carew was poor.

RC @ the end, well you just new he wasnt going to score

[Lizz]

Just watched Houllier's post match interview on the BBC website. It could be a case of star struck by new manager syndrome, or the fact that imo hearing French people speak English sounds very nice, regardless of whether the speaker is a totally unattractive git, he's more interesting than MON, and not trying to make cryptic points.

[KevinGage]

Most obvious plus point of today (aside from holding our own and not losing to a side that looked like they had our number last year) was it provided an opportunity for GH to see more of our squad utilised.

The two who it's fair to say would be some way off being first choice picks did themselves no harm today, and increase our options if others are injured or out of form in future.

[Somniloquism]

Just back. Dreadful game.Petrov was hopeless, Downing was good.

You serious? What game were you watching? Petrov had the best 90 minutes for a long time.

Petrov could have scored two, set up another two and cleared three off our line and garyfouroaks would have it in for him for not getting a hat trick. Similar to StevenJos and Heskey.

[citizenDJ]

Didn't mention in my earlier post, but I thought Beye was completely solid at right-back today. He's a good player, and a very decent back-up to L Young.

[DB]

We had nothing up front today, Carew was woeful (he'll be gone if he cariies on like that). We needed a striker, but Chelsea are probably saying the same thing. Ireland didn't get in the gameenough but Downing & Young were good today. Sorry if already been asked but why no Carlos today??? Clark did OK when he came on though.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

Was surprised to see Ciaran Clark get on ahead of Cuellar, but it worked out well and gets the Newcastle debacle fully out his system (not that he was the only culprit that day).
I think Petrov earned man of the match in a game which was a good overall team performance rather than any particularly star showings. Certainly pleased a couple of Bulgarian guys sitting next to us who had made the trip over when they announced that, "Stilly ! Stilly! " 

[Jimbo]

Just watched Houllier's post match interview on the BBC website. It could be a case of star struck by new manager syndrome, or the fact that imo hearing French people speak English sounds very nice, regardless of whether the speaker is a totally unattractive git, he's more interesting than MON, and not trying to make cryptic points.

I agree, but he appears to be under the misapprehension that we have a player called "Steve Dunne"?

[Dazvillain]

Just got back. Agree with most things on here. Petrov tried and worked hard today just as NRC, but neither are skillful. Dont know what Ireland is going to bring to the team, not seen him do much positive yet. Hope Gerard's scouts are working overtime abroad looking for a striker, or 2 for January.

On reflection time in the car, i think that it may be just as well we occassionally miss 3 like Luke Young, Heskey and Marc today so that Gerard has time to see the rest of the squad and see exactly what little quality back up we have

[Pete3206]

Come in number 19, your time is up! I can only think the MOTM award was a result of a good time had by all in hospitality.

[hawkeye]

There is a significant change in the way we play under GH, a decent result and a huge amount of effort, we are in transition but you can see the benifit of a more posession based approach, we still have a long way to go i am a little pissed off with the manager again talking about us as a 6th to 12th based club, talk about lowering expectations

[eamonn]

Haven't read the thread yet but looking forward to counting how many ''Reo-Coker in a nutshell'' quotes there are. To be followed in one of tomorow's tabs: ''Reo-Choker! Nige fluffs last minute sitter at the Villa''.
To be fair to the lad it would have been more NRC-esque if he had shot straight at Cech. He did well to make the goalkeeper commit, did the right thing in dinking it over Cech's body, just his co-ordinates were a bit awry.

As for the rest of the game, I missed the first 15 minutes which I believe was our best spell. Chelsea became more dominant as the game wore on, I was a bit disappointed at our lack of ideas, Carew became more prostate and isolated which meant we were effectively playing with ten. The defence worked tirelessly and got a bit of luck at times.

Our midfield worries me. Playing Petrov, Downing, NRC and Ireland together is just too powder-puff. Stan and/or NRC need replacing, Downing still flatters to deceive. When we're on the backfoot Ireland will be a passenger a lot of the time. It's the little nicks, runs into space, passes and through balls when we have possession where he'll excel, a little like Hendrie used to do. But Carew isn't on the same wavelength. I hope he was carrying a knock tonight because he looked well off the pace. I look forward to seeing how Ireland and Heskey/Gabby combine.

A point deserved just about but a bit of a comedown after the encouraging performance at Spurs. We still have a long way to go.

[DesBremner]

OK My two penneth...

Good game between two sides who looked evenly matched (!!), our missing players not as badly missed as theirs.
Cieran Clark looks something special love the way he looks to use the ball out of defence (once or twice went for an overly ambitious crossfield ball that put us under pressure but put it down to youthful exuburance). and got some good clearances in as well

NRC was excellent, Irelands movement off the ball is encouraging (the rest of the team will hopefully catch up)

Thought Beye did well and didn't look out of place,
Petrov MOM............bemusing   Collins and Clark were streets ahead

Carew............ frustating but did hold up the ball well in first 15/20 mins of 2nd half when we looked we were rocking and getting deeper and deeper


Referee and linesman on 'their' side second half utterly crap and behind the play.


Happy with a point but dissapointed we didn't edge it for all three

Oh! and Terry...hahahahahaha...your old slow and your going back to the gutter...........

[pauliewalnuts]

I thought Ireland was constantly popping up in space and we never passed the ball to him. He hasn't played much football for a while so he needs a bit of time to get up to speed.

Absolutely agree.

Ireland got into space plenty of times, and was calling for the ball constantly. We didn't get it to him anything like as much as we should have done.

When he did get the ball he had the little flicks or passes which are precisely what we've lacked for the last few years.

[pauliewalnuts]

I thought we were excellent for the first 15-20 minutes or so, but we had those two excellent chances, and didn't take either of them. How different it might have been if we had.

We were the better team for the first half. They were the better team in the second. Man of the match for me was Reo-Coker, who did exceptionally well, especially in the first half.

It is very early days yet for the new management team, but I'm really impressed with the start they have made. We passed the ball around extremely well at various points today, and looked composed on the ball.

Beye looked a little iffy and nervy to start.

Ireland (see above) was constantly looking for the ball and getting frustrated when we didn't get it to him enough, but when we did, he generally did the right thing with it.

Carew looked well off his game again. I wonder if we're seeing him moving towards the exit. I was a bit surprised to see a few people giving him a hearty standing ovation when he went off, I thought he'd contributed next to nothing. I also feel slightly uncomfortable about him waving at the Holte as they sing his song during the game.

Warnock I thoiught looked better than he has all season. I was surprised to see Clark come on rather than Carlos, but - after a few early shaky moments - he did pretty well.

Was surprised to hear Petrov got MotM. I thought he got away with it a few times today, and didn't really have one of his better games.