Aston Villa vs Chelsea Post-Match Thread

[Dante Lavelli]

Absolute suicide today.  Gutless and stupid.

Gutless? Absolute bollox in my opinion of course.

...and mine.  Gutless it wasn't.

[eastie]

If Lambert is blaming the ref he's wrong.

He may be right that terry should have been sent off though .

[ktvillan]

Calling it gutless is totally unfair, it was stupid (by Benteke) but not gutless.  We played very well but still can't defend, and it doesn't matter if you play brilliantly every week, if you are going to shoot yourself in the foot as often as we do you will always be in trouble.

[Tuscans]

Absolute suicide today.  Gutless and stupid.

Gutless? Absolute bollox in my opinion of course.

...and mine.  Gutless it wasn't.

Maybe he's Marty McFly and is watching the game at Stamford bridge....that was gutless.

[Toronto Villa]

We worked hard, and ultimately came up against a better quality side. That's all. We had our chances, they had theirs. I don't get the hate of Lampard. He's a quality player and in my opinion never comes across as a wanker. I'd certainly not reserve hate for him when there are so many more deserving characters on their team. We aren't at Chelsea's level and might never be, but we worked hard and lost. It happens. I don't think we have anything to worry about going into Wigan because I can't see them getting any more than a point. Arsenal want CL football and like Chelsea they'll take care of business.

We are a work in progress and we are moving in the right direction despite today. Our first job is to beat consistently the teams around and below us. We've been doing that. With a bit more quality we'll be able to compete more consistently against those in the upper tier of the league.

[Mortimer's Bear]

I thought Delph had another fine game.

[JUAN PABLO]

f**k look at this idiot on AVFC facebook page


 wigan will get 3 points today against manchester city and be 2 points behind villa. villa going down

[brontebilly]

Hard to believe we contrived to lose that one. 1-0 and a man up, Chelsea looked out on their feet and it seemed only a matter of time before we got the second. Benteke for me tried to do Terry, bit like Ramires tackle it wasn't that bad but the reaction of the tackled players for both red cards sealed their fate. Benteke could have seem red in the first half anyway for the elbow and was extremely lucky to stay on the field against Norwich last weekend.
Benteke going off gave Chelsea a new lease of life. Great first goal from Lampard though Baker was poor for it. Vlaar went to shit after that, his defending for their 'goal' was criminal and efforts at a bicycle kick in his own box almost handed them another. To be fair the winner was a brilliantly worked goal but a number of our players were caught ball watching badly with the one two and Delph for some reason decided to not keep tracking Lampard.
Both our full backs played well. Lichaj could have done better for the Chelsea winner maybe but had a very good game up against Hazard. Bennett had a fine game. Westwood had a great game in midfield. Sylla is a bit skittish with his touch but did well. Delph I thought was our best player again but switching off at the end for their winner cost us. Gabby and Weimann went out of it after Benteke went off. Definitely thought Nzogbia should have come in for Weimann but Lambert is poor when it comes to substitutions. Baker did alright but Vlaar was again absolute shite when Chelsea had us under pressure. Thought Guzan was muck today too. Kicking was deplorable, almost handed them a goal after Luiz free kick and didn't cover himself in glory generally for the last half hour.
As an aside, can't understand the hatred for Lampard on here.

[Loxton01]

We win the game if Benteke stays on the pitch it's as simple as that! We played very well today a s we just need to hope arsenal do us a favour! Norwich newcastke and Sunderland also have very tricky last day games if they don't get the points tomo! We are in a strong position! We have to go to Wigan strong bent or Bowery in the Benteke role is interesting teaser for lambert!

[bob]

Benteke's still brilliant, but he stupidly cost us today.

The elbow yes, but the second yellow, he was clearly looking at the ball all the way to his foot, and Terry did everything to ensure a red.

By kicking him, Benteke deserved a second yellow card. It doesn't matter if he was looking at the ball or not, he followed through into Terry and was correctly yellow-carded.

And loathsome though he is, Terry did nothing more than Gabby did when Ramires fouled him.

Eyes all the way on the ball.

It doesn't matter what his eyes were doing. It's what his foot was doing that matters.

There's a big difference between Ramires doing it twice in quick succession with everything in front of him and Benteke's, which he was very unlucky to get a yellow for.

I imagine that if Ramires hadn't have done that earlier and been sent off, then Benteke probably would have got away with it.

[Tuscans]

I thought Delph had another fine game.
[/quote

I thought Delph had another fine game.

He sure did, personally don't think anyone was poor today. Just one of those games.

[eastie]

We win the game if Benteke stays on the pitch it's as simple as that! We played very well today a s we just need to hope arsenal do us a favour! Norwich newcastke and Sunderland also have very tricky last day games if they don't get the points tomo! We are in a strong position! We have to go to Wigan strong bent or Bowery in the Benteke role is interesting teaser for lambert!

Bent must surely get the nod ahead of Bowery.

[Hillbilly]

Terry should have been sent off. There is no way on earth Cole would have got across. Maybe 10 years ago but not now. Still, Terry may have done himself some damage. Kharma's a bitch eh?

[Dante Lavelli]

I thought Guzan was alright, good even.  Two good saves and I don't recall any mistakes.

[Can Gana Be Bettered!?!?]

I totally agree with Lambert. Sums it up perfectly:

Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert told BBC Sport: "We should have won the game. I thought we looked great and played good football, we had a good tempo. Some of the decisions today were bizarre. The referee missed the John Terry one, he's taken down Yacouba Sylla. You've got to be big enough to make that decision.

"We were so far in control of that game. We didn't deserve that - we were excellent.

"I thought we should have had a penalty. There were so many decisions that were poor."