Chelsea v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[Herman]

Fantastic performance.

[bertlambshank]

The goal was a disgrace. The handball? I'd have probably felt annoyed if it had been given against us, not sure if Terry can really get his hand out of the way there, and his arm's up because he's falling not because he's blocking.

Still. We're in these games aren't we? Roll on 'Pool.

Fuck me he was falling from 3 foot.Penalty all day long.

[VinnieChase84]

There should seriously be an inquest into Kevin Friend after this. Disgrace

[SoccerHQ]

Christ we've had some horrendous decisions against Chelsea over the last few years, back to the cup semi final in 2010. More tonight.

In a strange way though I'm not too concerned as I felt we had the run of the decisions on Saturday.

Now the thing for me is this; I don't want a flat, feeling sorry for ourselves performance on Saturday as from that second half performance, I reckon that standard is good enough to beat Liverpool.

I said at 1-1 and when we were dominating we'd still lose it as this is the horrible way football works. Just shows aswell you have to take the chances if you get them as Chelsea created very little, think they only had 3 shots on target and got their first corner of the game in the 90th minute, we pissed all over them in the second half and lost and yet were very poor in the first half and went in level. Work that one out.

Just want a good performance against Liverpool. I'm expecting a point minimum from that game. A win and 6/9 points would be a brilliant start.

[CJ]

Can take solace from the fact that we should have deservedly got a point as opposed to an 8-0 thrashing but those key decisions by an awful ref leave a sour taste in the mouth - Ivanovic should have been off and we should have had a stonewall penalty - and to be fair Cech made some cracking saves. Corrupt referees favouring the 'big' club yet again

[Rudy65]

Said as much to my son. Joke. He books him for an elbow so he saw the incident, when it should have been straight red.

Absolutely gutted, but pleased we preformed so well

Let the Jose love in commence. Makes me wanna puke

[Monty]

The goal was a disgrace. The handball? I'd have probably felt annoyed if it had been given against us, not sure if Terry can really get his hand out of the way there, and his arm's up because he's falling not because he's blocking.

Still. We're in these games aren't we? Roll on 'Pool.

Watch it again. No way is an arm naturally there. It is a penalty in every different interpretation of the laws of the game. The ref has cheated, he is 5 yards away with a clear view.

I will watch it again. To be honest, even though I have my doubts about that particular handball, if Terry had picked it up and run for the tryline Friend still wouldn't have given it.

[Concrete Tom]

A significantly better performance than last year.

Looking a little more organised at the back, soaking up the majority of the pressure. Our midfield trio look disciplined and Okore slotted in comfortably.

Going forward, we continue to create chances and had it not been for Cech and/or "Friend", we would have taken something out of the game.

[Toronto Villa]

All this 'it was the referee's fault' makes us sound quite a lot like the Arsenal fans we were laughing at a couple of days ago.

A couple of decisions went against us tonight, there will be another game this season when a couple of decisions will go in our favour.

That's fine Dave and you're going to be proved right, but until that happens we can only talk about the now. Tonight the decisions weren't even marginal. They had a big impact on the result. One thing bleating when it's 7-0 and they make it 8, but if it's a tight game every decision is a big one. Those were decisions a ref in PL should have been better in making. He didn't do that.

[TonyD]

We are looking like a football club again...

Yes Fergal mate.  And a bloody good one.

Good times ahead - may no mistake.

[BoskoDjembaSalifou]

I'm so angry. I wish I didn't care as much as I do 

[Can Gana Be Bettered!?!?]

I don't agree with the suggestion that the match was fixed.

However, I do think that the top 4 teams get refs giving them the majority of decisions. Rather than working on seeing if a ball is over the line or not, how about ensuring matches a reffed fairly? It rarely is when a side plays a top 4 team.

[supertom]

Cannot fault the lads. Very unfortunate. Thought we were well worth a point. Sadly the ref today didn't have the balls that the guy on saturday did. Ivanovic could have gone, and we should have had a pen.

These early lapses at the back are frustrating because we've tended to defend well for the majority of the rest of both games. I thought we handled Chelski's movement very well.

Delph and KEA were good today. Westwood wasn't at his best again sadly. Wiemann struggled to get in the game and really should have put away at least one of his decent chances. At this level you have to tuck them away.
Benteke was a threat again. I did worry about him getting wound up again. They clearly targeted him.

Fullbacks did well. Vlaar had a solid game, though he did leave the Chelsea player onside for their first. Okore did well when he came on.

Proud of the lads. We need to take this level into the "easier" games. I'm looking forward to playing some bottom half teams, but we've proved we can give anyone a real game. Last season we might have fallen apart conceding early goals in games like this.

Would you bet against a top 8 finish?

Bring on Liverpool!

[ozzjim]

Okore and Vlaar looked the most comfortable our centre halves have in 12 months for me.

[Dan England]

Proud is the only word that can describe that performance. After the result last year we could have quite easily crumbled going down so early on. However we battled, showed grit and got back into the game.

You could argue Ivanovic should have gone and Terry handled the ball. There is no argument Ivanovic was offside. We were beaten by poor officials today. Did we deserve a win? Probably not but we were definitely good enough for a point.

We have moved mountains in 9 months since that defeat and I for one am loving it.

Up the Villa.

(we've lost and I feel really positive, that has to be a good sign)