Aston Villa vs Chelsea post match thread

[PeterWithesShin]

Paul Lambert was frustrated by the final result against Chelsea - but certainly not the performance.

Villa went down 2-1 to the Blues in B6 as Jores Okore's first goal for the club was cancelled out by efforts from Eden Hazard and Branislav Ivanovic for the Barclays Premier League leaders.

Lambert was gutted to watch his team lose but he was heartened by the "creativity and tempo" on show from his claret and blues.

Now he hopes the display is the "catalyst" for a fine end to the term for his side.

He said: "There were a lot of good things come out of the game for us.

"I was really disappointed to lose because I didn't think we deserved to.

"There were some good play from us and really good tempo to the game.

"I thought it was a great goal. I thought Carles was fantastic on the byline and then Jores finished well. I thought it was no more than we deserved.

"Even in the matches before, we had some great chances. It wasn't about making chances it was about taking them.

"Today we took the chance. And I thought football-wise we played well.

"I thought the front three were excellent - Carles, Andi and Gabby.

"To get the goal was a big moment for us with the way things have been going. But I thought the performance was very good.

"Villa are going into a run of games where, if we play like that, hopefully we will pick up a lot more points.

"We set a standard there, if we do that, hopefully we will win more games than not.

"You want to go as high as you can possibly can. There are a lot of games still to go but if we do that in the coming weeks, we will pick up points, that's for sure.

"That's the standard they have set themselves. If they play like that and keep that creativity and tempo to their game, they will win more than not.

"We were up against a team who, in my view, will be close to winning the Champions League and will close to winning the Barclays Premier League.

"With the players they have got - and the squad they have got - it was a big performance by us to do what we have done.

"Hopefully that's the catalyst for the football club to go and pick up points."

[SoccerHQ]

Lambert saying we deserved to win is utter nonsense.

I don't think us getting back to 1-1 was that undeserved but yeah as soon as we scored Chelsea up the tempo, start crossing into our box regularly and eventually got a mistake.

I've always assumed with Lambert he's like most managers in he'll give a positive spin in post match interviews but will be much harsher behind closed doors.

However given how continually rubbish we are under him, its possible he is giving these deluded opinions in the dressing room and the players are going along with him.

[Nelly]

I thought we matched them in the first half and maybe even just edged in overall play, although again we never really looked too threatening. It was encouraging and as others have said, if we can actually keep the forward intent, we might not do as badly. Second half we came out looking well up for it, Weimann had a chance that he didn't connect with where it looped over the bar, on another day he might have lashed it home. Then they made some changes, and just bossed the game from then on. Benteke, Cole and Sinclaire didn't do anything of note for me.

Gil is our only serious threat. I love how he beats people and our goal came as a result of him doing this, instead of what we normally do which is to pass it backwards and across the pitch.

If it clicks for us and we get some confidence from somewhere, I think we'll easily stay up. That's more hope than anything and as we know, the stats are piling up against us now.

[silhillvilla]

I've never seen so many half and half scalfs as I saw today, must be a growing phenomena .

Anyway 14 cup finals lie ahead now , 11 really as 3 are absolute write offs before a ball is kicked .

[andyh]

"Great, fantastic, excellent".

I must have been at a different game.

[garyshawsknee]

We're Gabby and Weimann excellent Paul ? Be a change if they were.

[silhillvilla]

We're Gabby and Weimann excellent Paul ? Be a change if they were.

Gabby looks finished at this level. Weimann worked hard as usual but never ultimately threatened the goal

[PeterWithesShin]

Weimann did okay, he does a lot of donkey work. Gabby was just a donkey.

[Stu]

No shame in that performance. It was a match we were never likely to win in all honesty. They matched Chelsea for long periods of the game. Gil looks a real prospect and Sinclair was bright when he came on.

Still giving the ball away cheaply though and that is what cost us ultimately.

Ref was shit. Where do they find these clowns?

Agree with what you say apart from the Sinclair bit. All he did was sit in Ivanovic's pocket. Ivanovic had his measure immediately.

[silhillvilla]

Very poor attendance again today , almost 5k down on the coresponding fixture last year which was a 530pm TV game !

[PeterWithesShin]

And kudos to the folks with the arrows in the Lower North, it made me loff when I saw them.

[Stu]

Very poor attendance again today , almost 5k down on the coresponding fixture last year which was a 530pm TV game !

Chelsea just aren't a big draw.

[silhillvilla]

And kudos to the folks with the arrows in the Lower North, it made me loff when I saw them.

Haha yes that was very very good .

[SoccerHQ]

Attendance didn't look that low to me, North stand upper was full, lower had a few empty seats. Was in the Trinity upper which was reasonably full as was the Witton.

Just the Holte that had decent empty spaces but didn't seem 7k empty seats to me.

[Witton Warrior]

Had a great day today - lift off an old mate so reminiscing as we drove up - nice cheese and bacon burger - into the Holte to meet another couple of people for a nice chat and several beers - much laughter even if it was  freezing today. Watched the match and laughed when Cleverly's name was booed again as they read the team out - I have never heard that for any other Villa player - watched game - sang - shouted -swore at referee - swore at John Terry - swore at various Villa players for giving the ball away - had another drink at half time - jumped around like a loon when we scored - had to sit down when they did - felt sad we couldn't score but not surprised - came home

I'm going again next week