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Was there to be hit . . .

All right, we wanted a clean sheet and here it is. But we didnt want one for Villa. For the first time in the Premiership this season, Chelsea failed to score. We had the ball, we had the chances, we had the shots, we had the everything but goals. I had a feeling that we were too psyched out by the fact that we conceded 8 goals in four matches. We played brilliantly in defence and lost some pace and attack in the process.

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The culprits of the day were the top two goalscorers for Chelsea this season. Drogba, with a hint of arrogance, mis-volleyed a ball, for which he had all the time and space in the world to control and blast from close range. Probably, he thought had he scored his way, it would have been more flambuoyant and dazzling. He missed a golden opportunity to take the lead and seal the game. But for that moment, Drogba really tried very hard and put in a monstrous effort.

The second culprit was Lampard who I thought (contrary to public opinion) had a very bad match. He kept losing possession, hit way off target and even made few erroneous passes. He had a glorious chance to bury the ball in the net with less than 5 minutes to go. May be he thought the goal post was 10 metres away or something but he was couple of feet away from a last gasp winner.

If there is one big positive from this match, it is the way we defended. Villa simply had no game to play. In fact, the first 15 minutes or so, they could hardly string three passes together. We were very aggressive in the defending, we were also pro-active and defended with excellent anticipation. Though he was not really tested, Hilario did a decent job. Carvalho once again the spine of our defence. He was simply superb. If there is one positive from Terry’s absence, it is Carvalho’s rise to the occasion. He was always cognizant of the inexperience and weaknesses of his keeper and co-defenders.

makelele.jpgI eat my words. Makelele was just awesome tonight. He absolutely controlled the midfield, aborted their attacks and won the ball with ease. In short, he just did the ‘Maestro Makelele’ role to perfection. With Maka solid and Essien remaining the powerhouse he is, if Lampard had come good today, we could have done really better.

Credit to Boulahrouz. One could see that he has become very cautious and determined not to screw up. He did pretty well in that half hour he played. I hope his injury is just a minor one. Anyway, Terry is all set to make a comeback in the match against Wigan on 13-Jan. I loved Ashley Cole tonight. He had this fire in his belly and with some luck, he could have scored his first Chelsea goal.

Jose started with two wide men – Kalou and SWP – unfortunately both of them did not shine. SWP would have surprised me if did well, but Kalou was a real disappointment tonight. This made Drogba’s job even more difficult. When will we again see Robben on the left, Joe Cole on the right and Drogba in the centre?

SWP2.jpgTo start with SWP in the right wing, made things easier for Villa. At times, SWP lost the ball so badly that he did not even need a marker. I can accept an off-colour Frank Lampard because it doesnt happen too often. He’s human too. But to see SWP fail match after match is really very sickening feeling. He keeps underestimating the opponents and becomes too ambitious before the opposition wins the ball from him with very little effort. This way, he’d lose his Chelsea jersey soon.

Kalou had some heavy touches, overdid some of his moves and ultimately did not make an impact. Jose should have brought on Sheva and Mikel for Kalou and SWP as earlier as the 50th or 55th minute. In the short time available, Obi showed some moments of brilliance too. This kid’s got some future. For his age, he showed a lot of maturity on the pitch (yes, I put Obi and the word maturity in the same sentence). Sheva was hardly visible. He is not quite an impact player to be brought on after 70 minutes. I would prefer Sheva starting and if things dont happen bringing on Drogba after 60 or 70 minutes.

Jose has the same feeling as me. We did not get three points but atleast we did not concede two goals:

I am happy with my team. Sometimes, you draw and you don’t play as a team and you make a lot of mistakes like what happened in previous matches, but today was different. The game was difficult, the opponent was not easy and they played for the point and they fought a lot for that. We played good enough for the clean sheet, we know the difficult situation in the back and with Boulahrouz(injury), it is even worse. But the team played as a team and kept a clean sheet.

It was the kind of match if you score you win, but we didn’t, so we didn’t get the three points. Six points at the end of this disgraceful period is not bad and the way they fought, we are leaving with a lot of hopes for the second part of the season. I think they answered my criticism. (They were) very compact, very solid, everybody behaved well and we deserved more. We got the point, but more important was the attitude of the team. We are alive and the fact we finish the period with (a) six points (deficit) is not a drama.

We believe in us and I am happy with the team’s attitude today

We had one full day of awareness that Man Utd has dropped points. There should have been no bigger motivation than this. Finally, we just need to be happy with the fact that the period of dropping points has started in the Premiership. We drop points and so is Man Utd (but well, we dropped more . .) and other clubs.

I would like to take this positive feeling from this match that I have started seeing the vintage Chelsea defence which got us the last two titles. You might argue that it was vintage Chelsea attack, it was there for all to see. Like I had said earlier, instead of a 2-2 draw, I would take a 0-0 draw, where we dominated the play and we go back after the match with a lot of promise for the next match.

The busy and difficult holiday period is over. Now we have the cup matches coming up. Premiership will resume after a gap of more than 10 days. In the Premiership season, it’s like the half time of a football match. Another half is yet to be played. As they say, football is a game of two halves! I’m waiting for that late winner from Chelsea!

At this moment, I’m not happy but certainly I’m not sad either.

[tags] Chelsea, Aston Villa, Villa, Villa Park, Jose Mourinho, Drogba, Lampard, Boulahrouz, Essien, Shevchenko [/tags]