Aston Villa v Chelsea Post-Match Thread

[JUAN PABLO]

agree with Chris smith's post..Pretty spot on...       Draw fair result but little gutted we didnt win it at the end.  If Heskey had played instead of JC , we probably would have won it. JC has legs like concrete pillars...  glad Warnock is getting out of his dire form and downing is improving...    Ireland will get better , he is a good player..

[PeterWithe]

Although the last player we wanted on the 1 on 1 was Reo, not many of our players would have had the energy to be in that position after playing the full 90 mins.

Precisley what I said to a fell aon teh train who was slagging him, disapointing though.

[Phil from the upper holte]

With regards to the 6th -12th comments I agree with GH that's where we are at the moment, Chelsea, Man ure, Arsenal, Man City, Spurs and the Albion (winky) are all ahead of us at the moment, Im certain he's going to be aiming for 6th but we do need improving and whats the point in him saying "were challenging the top 4" when were clearly not!

[PaulWinch again]

I thought we were fairly decent for the most part and I think Ireland showed glimpses of quality. Fair result, we just need to be much more clinical.

[Whiney MacWhineface]

Concur with Chris pretty much (almost thought for thought when he robbed that ball).

To me Ireland doesn't seem to quite know where he fits into the pattern of play and neither do his team mates. If they can work that out I think we'll have a level of invention and passing that we haven't seen for quite a while. I haven't a clue how I'd go about doing that so over to you Mr H.

[tarzansbrother]

I really enjoyed the game. Some people are forgetting Chelsea had won all their previous seven games. I think Young and Ireland can work well together but this will take a few matches to gel. We have a manager who makes simple decisions and plays players in their right position, he also uses the substitutes. At last our fitness levels seem to be improving. Will be interesting to see if we can find a striker in the January window.

[Shrek]

I was really happy with this game.

We played really well.
Friedel didn't boot it up the pitch until the 80th odd minute, which meant we kept possession instead of loosing it.
There were a few miss placed passes, but that is to be expected when tryin to change our style of play.
NRC was brilliant today, he breaks up play without sliding around and making fouls, yeah he missed a sitter but he'd already done his job by winning the ball.
Downing was again superb, he is easily our most composed player on the ball and always seems to use it well.
Ireland was in a no win today because he had that useless shit Stan never looking up for a penetrive pass to him.

We really missed albrighton and heskey today, although we have a real problem with winning the second ball. As crap as Carew is playing he wins alot of headers and we just need to start playing slightly further up field to win more second balls.

All in all a well fought draw where we more than held
Our own against the current best team in the premiership.

[Legion]

Some people are forgetting Chelsea had won all their previous seven games.

Manchester City?

[PaulWinch again]

I do think Reo deserves a new contract, I thought overall he was very good yesterday. I also believe Ireland will be very good for us.

[alanclare]

I, and the blokes around me in the Lower Holte, were in agreement that we haven't enjoyed a game quite so much as this one for a fair old time. The result was absolutely fair and reflected the equal amount of effort and skill displayed by the two teams. They hit the woodwork and so did we; they missed chances and so did we. It was unfortunate for Nigel R-C that he blew his chance right in front of the Holte End in the dying seconds of the game.

[Can Gana Be Bettered!?!?]

I imagine that's how Man City played against Chelsea.

Though Chelsea had lots of the ball, they didn't really create too much, only towards the end of the game.

Still not sure about Ireland. When Albrighton's back, I'd drop Ireland and put A.Young back in that position, Downing left and Albrighton right.

Everyone played their part though really. Clark looked fairly comfortable when he came on, Downing made some tackles, NRC did his job, Petrov was ok, but pace still lets him down on occasions.

A question to end though, would you have been confident that any of the players on the pitch would have finished the chance NRC had at the end? At a push, I'd say A.Young might have finished it, but not definite. Possibly Downing? I'm not confident that any of our players would score a one-on-one.

[Clampy]

Ireland needed someone with pace in front of him i thought, in fact pace up front was the only thing missing yesterday. He maybe should have bought Fonz on earlier than he did.

And not for the first time this season, i thought the ref was crap. 7 bookings, awarding free kicks for harmless challenges and awarding Chelsea a corner when it went out for a throw in.

Other than that, a game we should have won, but fairly happy with the draw.

[villa `cross the mersey]

A game of two halves and a fair result at the end. Top marks for our defending - I thought the comment about Warnock blowing after 80 mins was a bit unfair - he pulled up with an injury and soldiered on or the last 14 mins or so.

Its early days but I am pleased with Houllier is addressing - our passing game has improved and the players at the back aren`t hoofing it - Friedel is also using the ball better.

I agree that Downing has improved - but lets face it last season he was very disappointing. Pity Ireland and NRC didn`t take their chances as it would have done their confidence the world of good.

Carew`s first touch was poor throughout.

For me MOM was NRC - his fitness levels are immense

Overall I was more than happy at the result   

[j66acd]

Had plenty of possesion but was mainly between the back four and petrov, no real penetration but with carew lumbering about upfront and not really providing an option we wern't really going anywhere. I would have definately taken a point before though.

Downing and nige played well last night, and my heart skipped a beat when i found out Beye was playing and was facing Cashley and Malouda but i thought he did a decent job and didn't dive in too much either.

[jembob]

I'm surprised so many people have been so negative about the game yesterday. The real plus point for me was that we played with a plan and stuck to it. At last we've seen a game where our tactics were spot on and the players showed the discipline to stick to their jobs. While it was not the most attacking of displays, we have to remember that we were playing the best team by far in the Premiership and this will be our toughest game of the season. Well done to GH and the coaching staff - at one point I noticed GH leave the dug out to calm down Gordon Cowans who was giving the ref an ear bending.

Chelsea are a bloody good team and 2 of the subs they brought on cost more than our most expensive player. Different from previous years, I think that our squad would have learned a lot from the game yesterday whereas under MON they would just moved on to the next game. This result should give them a lot of confidence, and I'm quite pleased with 4 points from the last 3 difficult games.