Chelsea Football Club: Destination Villa Park
Chelsea, last game week, provided ample proof that they were the team to beat this season after dismantling Arsenal in a heated London derby. After an international break, the season was back on track, and this time Chelsea had a tough trip to Aston Villa
– a team that was playing its first game at home under Gerard Houllier.
Aston Villa was without Agbonlahor, who had a minor groin operation after his injury against Spurs a while ago. Chelsea was without its star duo of Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard, out with fever and groin strain respectively. With key players on the bench,
Gael Kakuta appeared to have a window of opportunity if he played his cards right. John Terry was declared fit after missing the midweek game for the Three Lions.
Chelsea, surprisingly, hasn’t had much to write about at Villa Park off late. Last year, the Blues lost on their travels at Villa Park, with a score of 2-1 to the home side. Shockingly, the holding premier league champions have just one win at Villa Park since
the turn of the century!
The game started brightly and Villa missed a golden opportunity to go into the lead after just 3 minutes. In the early stages, Villa dictated play. As far as the away side was concerned, they largely had to thank goal keeper Petr Cech for keeping them at par
with the opposition. However, as the game progressed, Chelsea started to enjoy more possession and in the 33rd minute, Obi Mikel had the first shot on target for the Blues.
At the half time interval, it was argued that the manager would have delivered a rather strong team talk as Chelsea came out with all guns blazing as the second half kicked off. Young Frenchman, Gael Kakuta, was taken off and Yuri Zhirkov was brought in to
replace him.
It was still early in the second half when Florent Malouda tested Friedel with a good 25 yard drive. But the Villa goal keeper not only kept it out but also managed to hold onto the ball. Ivanovic came close to breaking the deadlock in the 77th minute,
but his efforts came back of the upright. However, minutes later, lady luck came to Chelsea’s rescue when Ashley Young’s free-kick came off John Terry’s head and deflected off Clark on to the post.
There was more drama in the final few minutes when Nicolas Anelka, who was leading the line in the absence of Didier Drogba, hit the crossbar from an Ashley Cole cross. With almost the last kick of the game, Nigel Reo Coker finally burst forward and on a one-on-one
opportunity missed the goal and both teams shared the spoils.
Ultimately, it was a good result for Chelsea considering the number of players on the treatment table currently - Didier Drogba out with fever and Frank Lampard missing for a few weeks now. Apart from that, Chelsea’s closest rival for few seasons now, Manchester
United, are struggling big time and their woes increased as they were once again guilty of throwing away a lead. This time round, a 2-2 draw against West Brom at Old Trafford. Manchester United, still unbeaten in the league, is struggling with the number of
draws they are accumulating in this season.
However, having said that, Chelsea could also be deemed rather unlucky for not finishing the game off. They dominated the game in terms of possession; more than 60%. They also managed to rattle the bar twice. It can also be said that the Blues missed Drogba.
Had the Ivory Coast international featured, things might have been different as it’s not a long shot to assume that he leads the line much better than Anelka.
One real bright spot for Chelsea was that Jose Bosingwa finally played for Chelsea having been out for more than a year with knee problems. The right back slot missed such forward runs and pin point crosses into the box.
With all said and done, Chelsea still has their lead intact despite dropping points on the day. They now have to face the Wolves at home. Sandwiched between two BPL games, Chelsea has to make a trip to Russia and take on Spartak Moscow at the Luzhniki Stadium
– a venue where they lost the UCL final to bitter rivals Manchester United and for the sake of all Blue-fanatics out there, things might turn out differently this time round.
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