Premier League: Aston Villa 2 - 0 Chelsea
Match reports
The Independent, Sam Wallace: “Fourth place was not exactly what Roman Abramovich had in mind when he agreed with Jose Mourinho that Chelsea needed to reinvent themselves as the Premier League’s most entertaining side. Beaten by Aston Villa yesterday, and with a team struggling to score goals, Mourinho has a lonely week ahead to contemplate just how his side are to re-launch a season that went badly awry yesterday.”
The Times, Martin Samuel: “Roman Abramovich does not say much. Yesterday he did not need to. His exit two minutes from time after Gabriel Agbonlahor put the match beyond Chelsea’s reach was a speech in itself. Face like thunder, Abramovich headed for the exit as his team limped towards journey’s end behind him, pausing only to give the most cursory handshake of congratulation to Doug Ellis, the former Aston Villa chairman. The official explanation was that he had gone down to the dressing-room to see the players, but that is a strange one. Did he not think they were still going to be there five minutes after the final whistle? Why the rush? Already rumours have circulated that he is unhappy with the thrill factor of Chelsea’s play this season - hence his stalking of Ronaldinho - but until now he has at least been unable to question the return. This was quite different, though. Lousy football is one thing; lousy losing football quite another.”
The Guardian, Kevin McCarra: “The flaws at Villa Park are of the type known to exasperate a Chelsea proprietor craving spectacle. There was scant indication of any capacity in the side to respond to the opener from the debutant Zat Knight. Perhaps Abramovich will revert to championing the return of Andriy Shevchenko, who has been fit enough to represent Ukraine.”
Scottish Herald, Karen Giles: “Without Lampard taking matters into his own hands and driving through the middle, Chelsea showed no real bite. Or imagination. Or flair.”
Daily Telegraph, Henry Winter: “An unexpected loss should not dampen Chelsea’s fire. Jose Mourinho’s side were all at sea at times yesterday, but only a fool would scramble the life-boats simply because John Terry, Didier Drogba and company showed a rare weakness at defending and attacking corners.”
The highlights
Click here for extended high quality video highlights from Virgin Media. (Outside the UK? See here for brief goal highlights.)
The good
- The first 20 minutes or so promised a great deal. I’d watched Arsenal comprehensively beat Portsmouth at the Emirates Stadium on Sky and was enjoying this game just as much. We were attacking at will and at speed, Shaun Wright-Phillips was on fire down the flanks, it really did look promising. Aston Villa had their chances too, but Petr Cech was back to his best between the sticks. Then the game petered out. Half time came and went, and just after the break we conceded from a set piece, Drogba uncharacteristically at fault. We chucked everything including the kitchen sink at Villa as the second half progressed, but ultimately created few goal-scoring opportunities. Villa were a constant threat on the break, and Jose Mourinho’s ridiculous tactic of sending a defender to play as a striker in the closing stages cost us a second goal. Credit to Villa, particularly Martin Laursen, who was outstanding in defence.
- Shaun Wright-Phillips. Our best player. I’m not sure what Mourinho was thinking when he substituted him in the second half. Perhaps he was a bit wasteful in front of goal, but aside from that he was the only one who looked like opening up a resolute Villa defence. He probably should have had a penalty in the opening two minutes after Laursen man-handled him to the floor, but referee Mark Clattenburg bottled giving the decision.
- Michael Essien. The only other player who warrants a mention in this section. It was good to see him back in midfield.
The bad
- The result. Our first Premier League defeat since the 2-0 loss at Anfield in January. Our struggles at Villa Park continue; we haven’t won there since 1999.
- Lack of creativity in the final third, particularly in the opposition penalty area. A goal difference of plus one after five games tells a story. We’re just not creating enough clear-cut goal-scoring chances, and in this game we didn’t look like beating Scott Carson after Villa had taken the lead. Mystifying when you consider how many attacking players were on the pitch. The substitution of Wright-Phillips, our best and most creative player, didn’t help. All this highlights just how valuable Frank Lampard’s goals are to us.
- Our strike force is still pretty ineffectual when Drogba’s not at the top of his game and scoring regularly. Salomon Kalou is no striker, and Claudio Pizarro just isn’t getting the service to prove he can score 20 goals a season. We lack a natural goal scorer. Or do we? Where’s Andriy Shevchenko? £30m and not even in the squad. No wonder Roman Abramovich had his head in his hands.
- Jose Mourinho’s tactics in the dying minutes of the game. Sending John Terry up front and hoofing the ball to him is not a tactic you expect from a world class manager and team. It smacked of desperation and highlighted our inability to create chances. I don’t recall this tactic ever working when Robert Huth was asked to do it, and it certainly didn’t work in this game as Villa went up the other end and finished us off with a second goal. Like Abramovich, I too would have walked out.
Man of the Match
It’s got to be Shaun Wright-Phillips again.
Final thoughts
Liverpool won 6-0. Arsenal played Portsmouth off the park. Manchester United are back to winning ways without playing well. And we lost 2-0 at Aston Villa. The doom mongers will have a field day. A lot of their criticism will be justified; we were really poor in this game despite bossing it for long periods.
An off day? Or signs of an inherent problem, a lack of creativity? Will Mourinho resort to his tried and trusted methods, methods that get results? Will Abramovich like it if he does? Lots of questions that won’t be answered until in-form Blackburn Rovers visit Stamford Bridge in 12 days’ time. Lampard should be back by then.
Related links
- Reaction: You pay for mistakes
- Jose Mourinho doesn’t like reminder of defeat
- Mourinho predicts open title race
- Posted at 10:55 AM · Permalink · Print · 1963 views · Last indexed by Google on the 15th May 2008
- Tags: Andriy Shevchenko, Anfield, Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers, Chelsea, Claudio Pizarro, Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard, Jose Mourinho, Premier League, Roman Abramovich, Salomon Kalou, Shaun Wright-Phillips
Quite simply, utter garbage.
15-odd corners, and no real threat to Carson (due in part to the fact that the majority of them were absolutley awful). Villa had 2 and scored one. That says it all.
SWP was by a country mile our best player, so taking him off was always going to happen. I have no idea if Jose just picks on him because he always has done.
Was impressed by Belleti - he coped well with Young all game, the dash at the end apart. Alex looked average if nothing more, JT was o.k. but struggled with Carew - who I was impressed with. I wish our lone striker would just shrug his shoulders and get on with it, instead of whingeing like a little girl half the time, clutching various body parts that replyas show havent even been touched.
The 3 of Makelele, Essien and Mikel mastered the art of one-pass-forward-three-backwards between themselves nicely. Each seemingly more intent than the others to stand as close to JT as possible.
Malouda flitted in and out of the game (as he has done for a few weeks now). His set piece delivery was average, and for a wide man, was coming inside too often.
Not sure what Scott Sinclair has to do to get back in the squad. Based on yesterday, I’d suggest not much. Pace to burn, young, willing. Villa had two like that who scored their second yesterday.
We had Kalou. Nuff said.
Far too many times we were caught on the ball. There seemed to be little communication; no-one telling their team-mates there was a man on.
It goes to prove just how much we miss Lampard (and to a degree Ballack - if he’s still alive). With no real replacement for him, we’re heading for a similar situation we had last year with no CB’s, if he gets injured again. Why this hasn’t been addressed seems bizarre.
It was mentioned last week we’d played poorly (yet again) but won. Yesterday we maintained consistency by playing badly, but actually got what we deserved. Nothing.
And Jose’s having a laugh if he thinks we deserved anything else.
Reports are that SWP was injured, hence his substition.
We were poor in the final third again; even worse without Lampard or the needlessly villified Ballack. Thought the decision to start with Maka was bad - a more attacking midfield would have made some difference.
We’ve conceded far too many from set pieces recently. Not good enough.
Love the Roman ‘left with face like thunder’ comments from the press; he had exactly the same facial expression he always has!
No need to panic, still a long way to go. The transition from one style to another was always going to be difficult.
Not great - then again, Villa Park hasn’t been as such for the best part of a decade (surely now our worst current away ground?).
Never really understood the issue with slinging JT / a centre-half up front in the last 10 mins when a goal is needed - we’d created nothing else so why not? Didn’t work yesterday, but on occasion it does - Drogs’ equaliser against Barca was nodded down for him by…?
Great article Nick, couldn’t agree more with you pal. A shocking display, the term ‘desperation’ that you used fits the bill perfectly. I was most dissapointed with Malouda actually yesterday. Got off to a flyer against Birmingham but i haven’t really seen him do much else. Was slow and didn’t seem interested. Why he picked Mikel, Maka’s and Essien in the midfield i’ll never know. All powerful players, good at laying off balls in their own half but give us hardly anything in the attacking third. And then to take off Wrighty…he’s barking! The only player who was doing anything dangerous. Why didn’t he start Sidwell. Most of you will laugh but he’s a box to box player and there was such a big gap between the midfielders to strikers, Villas defence must have had a field day! Everytime they cleared a header away from goal there was always a Villa player in front of them with no pressure to get rid of it.
What with all the doom and gloom going on two things that are clearly evident have shown themselves, ONE: We Miss Lamps, he’s our best player even when not on form. TWO: Belletti looks like a cracking buy, have to admit had my doubts but that guys got some energy, up and down. So as much as i’d like to blame Mourinho for this defeat, cracking management on getting a player like that for £3 mil,…i think?
We looked totally lost in front of goal no killer pass to finish off some very good approach play, although I do feel we were sort of mugged, especially as it was their first corner of the game they scored from.
I was a little surprised that Joe Cole didn’t play in centre midfield in place of Frank I feel he would have given us a little more creativity and goal scoring opportunities, but yes we did miss Lamps yesterday.
Could prove to be an interesting season with quite a few twists and turns in the weeks and months ahead, but I still think we’ll be there or thereabouts come the end.
PS I know we had a soft penalty against Liverpoo, but there should be no excuse not to give a stonewall one. Mr Hackett…Jose will await the apologetic phone call from Mark Battenberg!
I too thought the opening exchanges showed a lot of promise, but as the game wore on, it looked like it would be one of those days, periods with lots of possession, some good passing and movement but not quite incisive enough to cut through a resolute Villa defence. I wasn’t too worried going one down, it’s been the way recently and felt confident the equaliser would come. Maybe SWP should have stayed on as he was doing well, and I thought Mikel was strong in midfield with Essien. It’s inevitable that when you go all out to win you’ll be vulnerable at the back, the alternative is to do nothing, and there wasn’t a point on the board to settle for at that stage. Perspective is called for and I’m disappointed that the media frenzy is creating this supposed psychodrama around Roman and Jose again. Yes the doom-sayers will be calling for Roman to sack Jose and buy another team, but as much as we don’t expect to be 4th I bet ManU don’t expect to be 8th, and if they’re honest Liverpoo didn’t expect to be top. Maybe this season will povide the unexpected and confound most expectations, there’s a long way to go and I’m not about to slit my wrists just yet!
…although if we’re in a relegation battle in May I’ll reconsider =)
Come On You Bluuuuuuuuuuuues!!!
I agree with what is written here. We were realy lacking our attacking creativity. Sometimes I even think that we have got “Arsenal syndrome” of keeping the ball without scoring. We enjoy possesion, but we lack of creativity in front of the goal.
HAS EVERYONE FORGOTTEN a certain Mr Frank Lampard???
‘We will realize how important a player he is for us only when he is gone’ - that’s what i said before.
No Lampard yesterday what happened?
All thosd Lampard haters where are they now???
Some idots want Essien and Mikel to play in our midfield two and leave Frank Lmaprd out. Lamaprd i sthe heartbeat of our midfield, everything goes through him when he plays. How often do you see the players pass to Lampard when they need someone to pass to.
Where was the thrid man breaking into the box, where was the support arriving for Drogba to lay the ball off to (Portmouth match?) without Lampard?
He does the simple things , does the right things uses his brain, and gets into the box to score goals for us.
Yesterday, we had ALEX, BELETTI, MALOUDA, WRIGHT-PHILLIPS, MIKEL, that is FIVE players who have not been first team players for us. We might have got back into the game if we had a little more experience on the pitch and some calm heads who know what it’s like to go a goal down and come back to get a point or win.
If we had Fereira, Carvalho, Lampard, Ballack, Joe Cole (yes, for a little creativity) and even Sheva it could have been very different.
THE PREMIERSHIP IS VERY PHYSICAL AND YOU HAVE TO BE VERY FAST (BOTH THINKING(reflex wise) AND PACE) STARTING WITH THE DEFENDERS CHELSEA LACKS PACE AND I CANNOT SEE ALEX COMPLEMENTING TERRY U THEY LOOK TOO SLOW AGAINST OPPOSITIONS HAVING PACE. OPPOSING TEAMS JUST NEED TO PUT A PACY STRIKER UP FRONT AND CHELSEA WILL LEAK IN GOALS . IN TERMS OF REFLEXES MOURINHO NEEDS TO FIND A STRIKER OF GOOD REFLEXES. TO BE TRUE DROGBA HAS AN AWFUL FIRST TOUCH AND AT TIMES HE LOOKS MORE OF FLUKE THAN ASSURITY I.E. AD BET ON HIM USING HIS HEAD PRPOPERLY RATHER THAN HIS FEET. I THINK CHELSEA NEED A GALLAS LIKE DEFENDER IN TERMS OF PACE (OF WHICH I THOUGHT JOSE WOULD HAVE BOUGHT RICHARDS OR TRAINED GLENN JOHNSON WHO WOULD HAVE TURNED TO BE AN EXCELLENT CENTER BACK) THESE IS WHAT THE OPPOSITON ARE REALLY CAPITALISING ON JOSE. OF ALL OF CHELSEAS TRANSFERS THERE IS NON WITH SPEED AND GOOD REFLEXES 3/4 OF PHILIPS DELIEVERIES ARE WASTED . PIZZAROS REFLEXES ARE EXTREMELY POOR LIKEWISE TO SHEVA
I think the Lampard excuses are poor. Look at the names in your team, and to say the loss of one player means you can’t win is insane. In addition, Lampard would have done nothing to prevent our two goals, and do Chelsea fans believe Lamps would have scored 3 to our 2 - when have Chelsea ever done more than a 1-0 victory? I can see why Roman was pissed, but he is your biggest problem at Chelsea. You wouldn’t see Lerner or Glazier in the changing rooms at half time saying “I’m not entertained, run around more my yellow slaves” - was his money worth it when you look at the rot which has set in the heart of your club? My biggest comment of the game has to be Terry though - in the refs face at every decision, and this is supposed to be the England skipper, what a disgrace.
Good summing up Nick. I agree with general tone of the comments too. No need for panic, difficulties with transition etc. Though in darker moments I think we are actually lucky to have any points at all this season: 2 soft goals to win against Brum, lucky to survive with a one goal deficit at h.t. at Reading, dead lucky with pen at ‘Pool, rode our luck with Pompey and now this. And I keep expecting to check the BBC sight and see a ‘Mourhino sacked’ headline. I thought the civil war that broke out last winter was all press hype, but it turned out to be true…subsequently confirmed by Jose, Kenyon and trustworthy journos like McCarra of the Guardian. So, I’m bound to think the most recent leaks might have some truth too. But I’ll ignore my dark moods and focus on how good we look at times and how SWP is playing etc (surely the brightest thing about us so far). Jose said before game he’s not rotating yet, because still bedding in a team to get points up early. Maybe he’ll rethink that now. It reminds of me a bit of watching fav Chelsea teams of old like under Sexton, Gullit, Vialli and Ranners. Flashes of great play undermined by a recurrent brittleness. Good memories though! I never ever want to get like a Manyoo fan - sitting around moaning if they aren’t winning Leagues every year.
Lamps was somewhat conspicuous by his absence yesterday…
Villafan
Did you actually watch the game yesterday? If you read the posts again you’ll see that most of the posts are not claiming Frank would have won us the game, but perhaps with our good build up play his late runs might have just caused more problems to the Villa defence and just perhaps made Carson do some work for his wages.
I’m also amazed you seem to know the inner most secrets of our owner and in what he demands from his team when he visits the changing rooms, also the Glazers as well, you must be well connected! (A word of advice, don’t believe everything you read in our illustrious press)
Your views with regard John Terry, well those are the sort of remarks we expect from schoolkids and isn’t that where you should be this week?
I certainly didn’t expect Chelsea to lose yesterday… but it happened and reflecting on the game afterwards, it wasn’t all that shocking (although it was!).
Well, for one, you can’t ask of Mourinho to be what he is clearly not… he is a result manager not an entertainer! He’s being asked to produce something foreign to his philosophy of the game! You want entertaining football, there’s a chance you won’t win the league - easy as that!
Where I feel he is wrong, is that he doesn’t always treat his players equally. I had no problem with him getting Sheva out of the team when he wasn’t playing well… but what message do the players get when Drogba played very poor every game of this season and he doesn’t even get replaced during any game. I don’t have a problem with Drogba, but if he’s not in good form and plays poorly, get him on the bench and get someone else on.
Yesterday, for me it was a great example of Mourinho not being able to handle player’s pressure. Drogba should have been benched, but Mourinho didn’t have the guts to do it, because Drogba might think he’s bigger than the team and would threaten to leave? Chelsea should never play with Makelele and Mikel at the same time unless they play for a 0-0! Yesterday would’ve been the time to get only one of the two along with Essien and either Joe Cole or Sidwell. Sheva should have been at least on the bench! He is fit, otherwise wouldn’t have played for his country! I think it was Wenger (of all people) pointing out last year that Drogba scored so many goals also because Sheva was getting a lot of defender’s attention! Now they only have Drogba to worry about … and he doesn’t score anymore! A. Cole and Essien have put in quite a few long balls but Drogba was whistled for fault in attack every time!
At the back, I think that Belletti is fine for the job, Alex is no better than Ben Haim and they are both good cover for Terry or Carvahlo but not as good as those two!
Lets hope that Sunday’s game was just a hiccup. Go, Chelsea!
The refs are now too bloody scared to award a penalty for Chelsea after the Rob Styles’ incident.
I too am concerned about Drogba’s lack of touch and form (and no, this isn’t the same Andy as above).
He looks well off the pace this year and we were so reliant on him last season that we will struggle to get goals if he is out of touch.
I have seen nothing of Malouda since the Birmingham game, and Joe Cole should be getting a run in his place at the moment.
Didn’t really rate Belletti’s performance much either. The Villa left winger (sorry, name escapes me) was probably the best player on the park and he made Belletti look average at best.
I have never been a fan of Alex and he will not be more than a bit part player over the season. Any idea how long Carvalho is out for?
Pizarro’s first touch was woeful, JT struggled with Carew, and the midfield with Maka & Mikel had too little forward drive.
All in all, certainly wasn’t our finest hour.
I am a bit concerned about Ballack being left out of the Champions League squad. If Lamps does happen to get / remain injured for any period of time, on this performance we do not have the depth to perform against the biggest teams in Europe.
Andy, it shouldn’t be much confusion, since you spelled your name with capital A while I did not. I’m just “andy”.
As far as Ballack goes, Chelsea’s site says that: “Naturally we hope Michael’s recovery is as quick as possible, that he returns to full training ahead of schedule and that he will then be available for the latter stages of the competition, should we qualify.”
I don’t think our qualification out of the groups would be in question even if we won’t have Ballack and Lampard for a couple of games.
Ballack had a second operation on his ankle just before the season started… not a good thing.
Methinks the January transfer window may well signal a few ‘ins’ for us.
Well, it has to really.
With regards to Ballack, he wouldn’t be cup-tied in January if we received an offer for him……
Also, interesting to read on the offical site we couldn’t have Scott Sinclair in our European squad as he went on loan last year. What a farce. Probably our best youngster, and we can’t play him as he was loaned out to gain match experience.
Drogba’s first touch is always erratic. Sometimes it’s bloody brilliant and sometimes it’s awful. He hasn’t been playing brilliantly but he gives too much to the team to drop him. He set up the Portmsouth goal, he scored a quality goal against Reading and maybe he’s just lacking proper support.
The point ‘andy’ makes about Sheva not being there might also be valid. He admitted himself last season he was geting a lot of space on the picth becaus eof Shevchenko’s role.
One loss and the Chelsea “die-hards” are all over themselves. Did not watch the match was on a flight to Malaysia..bt hell people this is Villa…we last beat in 1999 an you smelt blood? Honestly I expcted either a loss or a draw… But of course not a two - nil…now that was embarrasing but yet again after looking at the team The Special one put out why not…we clearly lacked the push…can not possibly play Maka and Obi in the same team and then add Essien in the middle…defense defense defense…come on JM… I would have a combo of Drogba and either Kalou/Joe Cole/Claudio upfront, wingers Malouda and SWP and offer Essien and Maka in the middle.
No probs with the Back line though.
ANd this nonsense of Lamps missing that is why we lost is toss. It was just the wrong format of play and YES we were playing at the Villain park…
Damn…but hey Sh*t happens.
Started watching Chelsea at beginning of ‘06-’07 season. See Drogba score 30 odd goals and wonder how could this guy score only 16 a season for previous two campaigns?
Answer - play him as the lone striker in a 4-3-3 with no support and a midfield full of holders who don’t create or pass.
Mourinho: drop this ridiculous 4-3-3 and embrace what you are: a big, strong, physical side who kick the opponent’s teeth down their throat.
Want to play “beautiful football?” Tell Roman to pony up the 85 Million pounds for Ronaldinho. If not, see if Deco, Pirlo, Seedorf or assorted others can be had. Chelsea, as currently assembled, will never play beautiful football. So get over it.
4-4-2 is the only formation for this team. Don’t like Sheva? Play Malouda as a striker (that’s really what he is anyway) up front with Drogba and use Pizarro as a change of pace. Kalou is trash.
The idea that Lampard would have saved the day at Villa is absurd. This result was bound to happen (not as if it hasn’t before - see Liverpool, 2nd leg of Champions League semifinal, where Drogba is left alone to fend off entire back four). Hopefully the result this early will spark a return to sanity.