Chelsea v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[AV82EC]

I think the thing people are forgetting about Downing is that he did an incredibly effective man marking job on Ashley Cole usually a huge outlet for Chelsea but still managed to create some issues for Chelsea including a sublime cross to the back stick for Emile's goal with his right foot.  I get really annoyed with people who criticise him for being lazy when he's invariably working his bollocks off off the ball and he provides superb balance and width to our team.  It was his hard work today that meant nothing came down our right hand side and Carlos could ably assist Collins and Dunne.

[Toronto Villa]

That was more like it. Let's hope that's a sign of things to come now we're getting the injured players back. I thought Dunne and Cuellar were superb but there were lots of great performances coupled with more spirit and fight.

I went from wanting to kill Albrighton to loving him in the space of 2 minutes.

The ref was a twat.

The season started today.

I hope so Chris.  I hope we carry on with that level of performance, and don't follow it up like we did the Man U game which had a similar feel to it.

I hope so too. The Man U performance ended with the team being gutted despite a really good performance. Scoring late on today in what was a really gritty and determined display will fill the squad with a lot of energy. Had we thrown away the game, which it looked as though we had, it might have really hammered the already fragile confidence.

[Toronto Villa]

I think the thing people are forgetting about Downing is that he did an incredibly effective man marking job on Ashley Cole usually a huge outlet for Chelsea but still managed to create some issues for Chelsea including a sublime cross to the back stick for Emile's goal with his right foot.  I get really annoyed with people who criticise him for being lazy when he's invariably working his bollocks off off the ball and he provides superb balance and width to our team.  It was his hard work today that meant nothing came down our right hand side and Carlos could ably assist Collins and Dunne.

agree entirely. I think he was told to do a job, and essentially kept Cole quiet all game. Sometimes you don't need to be visible to have had a good game, and I think he carried out the manager's instructions really well.

[brontebilly]

Brontebilly, did you watch the game? Chelsea committed 18 fouls villa committed 12. So you tell me how we got 7 bookings and they got 2? There were no nasty challenges just little jiggles from both teams, i cannot remember a ref more one sided.

yeah mate, I did. Unfortunately bookings dont measure up to number of fouls though. All our bookings were deserved. Petrov's was a bad tackle, the rest were unavoidable but dont think our players can have any complaints. Essien should have been booked a lot sooner but aside from that I was happy enough with him. 

[eastie]

Bring on Sunderland- the lion is roaring again and 2 wins over Sunderland and blues are very achievable, fabulous effort and pleased for everyone - this result could really turn our season around now!

[goldenjimi]

Today showed how much we have missed Petrov.  He's a calming influnce in the middle, good at winning time with free kicks and tidy's up any loose balls from defence.  Lets hope we can keep him fit and add a quality partner for him.

[Risso]

The good thing at the moment is that we can use the likes of Albrighton and Bannan sparingly.  What we need now is for a Stephen Ireland rebirth, because that bench was weak today.

[brontebilly]

If a bloke the size of Collins jumps for a header, and a much smaller man like Malouda makes no effort and is backing into the defender, then the reasult is what you got. Malouda was very clever and conned the ref into giving them a pen. Fair play to Malouda, but the ref should have caught on to that.

Collins was never going to head the ball from his position so he should have just held his ground. He was rash. Malouda was clever alright but that would have been a foul on any other area of the pitch too so was deservedly a penalty.

[Risso]

Brontebilly, did you watch the game? Chelsea committed 18 fouls villa committed 12. So you tell me how we got 7 bookings and they got 2? There were no nasty challenges just little jiggles from both teams, i cannot remember a ref more one sided.

yeah mate, I did. Unfortunately bookings dont measure up to number of fouls though. All our bookings were deserved. Petrov's was a bad tackle, the rest were unavoidable but dont think our players can have any complaints. Essien should have been booked a lot sooner but aside from that I was happy enough with him. 

NRC's and Heskey's appeared to be for nothing at all.

[WikiVilla]

Highlight was Randy and Doug celebrating that equaliser

Oh and full credit to Houllier for todays team selection, particularly the olive branch he offered Dunney

[Clark W Griswold]

oh and I apolgise to my 5 year old son , for runing up to the TV at 3-3 and giving John Terry one of the biggest wanking signs ever..   I just got abit emotion son......   

Review of Chelsea goals.

1 Undeserved penalty and 2 shots turned in following saves.  Hardly bad defending.

Must admit I thought it was a penalty.  Also thought it was a really stupid challenge from Collins. to the 3rd.

If the striker doesn't jump and it's not due to the centre half holding him down, he's making a back for the defender and that's a foul, that's what happnened, it should have been a free kick to us.

Agree completely - Collins never took his eyes off the ball - Malouda backed in.

Did you all fail to notice that Collins had physically raised himself off the floor, such was his success in climbing up the back of Malouda?

Collins jumped, Malouda didn't, that's a free kick to the defender. Collins didn't have his hands on the striker, it was a clean jump.

You are probably correct in relation to the laws of the game, but what you fail to notice is that our player jumped onto their player, and as far as i know, that is not allowed.

If the ball had been going to Malouda's chest, then yes it's a foul, but it wasn't, he needed to jump to win it, that's a foul on the defender if he doesn't jump.

But whatever way you look at it, you are not supposed to climb all over the back of the defender, if the contact had purely been Malouda pushing Collins backwards then fair enough. He was all over him like a cheap suit. Either way, with the exception of him, they all played well and we got a deserved point. I would even say Collins was not as bad as he has been, but still needs massive improvement.

[Dribbler]

Well the fight was there today and that is the most important thing. It was pretty much a MON type performance and we didn't play well at all with the ball for most of the match, but we battled and threw everything on the line and played to our strengths rather than pissing around with the ball in defence and midfield. I think Houllier might have started to realise his pretty passing game is going to have to wait until next season, because otherwise he might not even get a next season.

Friedel was outstanding today and kept us in the match, the defence all looked good for most of the match but they all had their shaky moments too, Cuellar was my pick of the bunch. Clark played well considering he got a goal and was out of position, but we looked amazingly exposed down that left hand side and that was the cause of many of our problems. Everyone battled though which was great to see. Anyone suggesting Ireland should be brought back into the fold needs to think back to his absolutley pathetic and gutless performances for us, i've got little doubt we would have lost if he had played today.

Houller should have made a couple of substitutions around 75th minute IMO as the writing was on the wall at that point and half of our team just looked wiped out.

As for the ref, what a complete twat - never a foul for the penalty by Colins, though it was a stupid challenge. 7 yellow cards to Villa players, only 2 to Chelsea, totally inconsistent.

At the end of the day it's a point, but a hard won point that should hopefully give us some confidence going into the new year. Now i want to see a victory at Sunderland and 2 or 3 new faces coming in. Psychologically it could make a big difference

[saunders_heroes]

Really chuffed with the result but even more so with the performance. Our season starts from now!

[brontebilly]

Brontebilly, did you watch the game? Chelsea committed 18 fouls villa committed 12. So you tell me how we got 7 bookings and they got 2? There were no nasty challenges just little jiggles from both teams, i cannot remember a ref more one sided.

yeah mate, I did. Unfortunately bookings dont measure up to number of fouls though. All our bookings were deserved. Petrov's was a bad tackle, the rest were unavoidable but dont think our players can have any complaints. Essien should have been booked a lot sooner but aside from that I was happy enough with him. 

NRC's and Heskey's appeared to be for nothing at all.

Cant remember Heskeys but Chelsea were breaking when Reo Coker tripped someone (if memory serves correct) so it was a fair call

[WikiVilla]

oh and Dunne's tackle on Ramires in the box

That was class