Matches, Premier League - Written by BlueChampion on Wednesday, January 3, 2007 0:59 | 1,899 Views | 23 Comments | Add Comment
Aston Villa 0-0 Chelsea: Determined to stay behind?
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.
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.
I 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?
To 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]
23 Comments
1. blueblood58
Jose has got the guts! He wants to go out for an all out attack with 4-3-3. I’m gonna love this! C’mon Blues!!
BB58 - What about the bench?
3. Tempo
The bench has Hedman, Sheva, Geremi and Mikel (i dont know the fifth one). Sorry BC. No Diarra.
4. jamal
we drew again
5. blueblood58
Now Boulahrouz is injured for a minimum four weeks. Drogba and Carvlaho will miss the Carling Cup semi-final 1st leg against Wycombe next Tuesday and BC you match clock is OUT of DATE LOL LOL.. The game is over!!! You really have to set that clok to UK time LOL LOL
6. Midfield_Decider
Hi folks,
Again I was right about Jose’s blindness.
Unfortunately the title race is really over as I tod before. It doesn’t matter anymore whether ManUtd slips on some occasions or not since Chelsea cannot use this in any way. If Chelsea won the last 3 games (2 at home and all 3 against relatively weak teams) they would be on level with ManUTD.
I have watched tonight’s game again Aston Villa and I have realized that it really does require skills to be a good manager. And Jose currently is NOBODY in my eyes.
Without “untouchable” Ballack (fortunately suspended) Chelsea did well in the miedfield since there was not any relaxed mispassing and fouling player like Ballack. But this time Jose’s mistake was Solomon Kalou. It was the 1st mistake of Jose (yet forgettable since nobody could know that he would play that awful). If any of you have watched this game you will agree with me that Kalou not only was useless but also was an obstacle for his teammates in some situations, for example he messed up Lampard’s long run into the box by almost running onto him from behind, he mispassed in many cases either. In the 1st half Drogba really missed someone like Sheva near him. In the 1st half there were crosses fron SWP where the team needed someone else near Drogba. In the second half when I expected Jose to introduce Sheva instead of utperforming Kalou he took off SWP. Very big mistake. SWP was doing well on the right wing with his speedy runs and crosses. Again Jose did not understand that Sheva needs to play with wingers like Robben and SWP. Jose just threw Sheva on the pitch. I was amazed looking at Drogba, Lamps and others who didn’t even look at Sheva, like he was always there. Briefly there were no tactics in regard to how to use Sheva in those circumstances. Besides after SWP left the right wing became useless.
I will try to forget this year since we will win NOTHING (well maybe Carling Cup which is really nothing).
Abramovich should sack Jose at the end of the season and bring someone more experienced and skilled in attacking football like GUUS HIDDINK.
Take it easy fellow blues.
Thanx.
7. manager_decider(lol)
Well.. U r rite.. but i like Jose =] he’s been taking control of Chelsea for past few years and did very well. I hope he always stays here.. sometimes Jose do some mistakes but that’s why i love him, he do mistakes and overcome them and he’ll do this again and we’ll get back on track (soon) and i’m sure it’s gonna be us who’ll lift the trophy..
8. Anonymous
and Thx 4 Bc.. Grreat Blog!! keep up the good work man..!!
9. zubinj9
hey why r u(manager_decider) so upset about our team’s performance.
yesterday we fought very hard. we came back with an answer.
defence was well organised. also midfield.
dont blame jose.
its just because of jose we are discussing these matters here or he gave us the oppurtunity for us or he inspired many football lovers to be a part of chelsea fc(fans).
so jose should stay here. and he will stay here.
go ahead jose ………………………..
10. Anonymous
the above one was to MIDFIELD_DECIDER.
11. RomanHoliday
I didn’t get to watch the match.
But from what I read from above it seems the team is getting better.
Now the momentum I’ve been talking about seems to be building. We’re gonna get better and we have.
If it were a 0-0 with Villa outplaying us then big trouble.
But we are alive and kicking and no-one’s taking us for granted.
BB58 what was the travelling Chelsea fans reaction and your opinion of the match ?
12. Blue Champion
Your nick change from ‘roman’ to ‘roman holiday’ has got only draws for chelsea and united. May be you should change it to ‘roman emperor’ or ‘king roman’ or ‘romanov’ or . . . Just kidding lol
13. Manish
It was Villa’s first point in last 5 matches….it is enough to show how far we are from our champions status…title seems to be out of sight to me now….even Liverpool is just 8 points behind and they have to host all big three…..
14. RomanHoliday
LOL LOL
Not so many posts today
So I will post one to get everyone’s spirits up.
Well if Ashley hadn’t the bad luck to OG Essien that would’ve been 3 pionts.
And outta the mists of time if Hilario had been able to push out one roundish ball, could’ve been another 3 . Forgot the match . Correct me if I’m wrong .
If Frank or Drogba had been able to score in about 2 matches , in the final minutes ( I think arsey and another one ) we would be quite ok in the standings.
But of course , it was not to be . Reality. is we are 6 points behind.
Like the boss JM said ManUre should be be much more in front
But that is not my point.
I wanna say :
We are lucky , damn lucky even to be be where we are, with all the injuries , no penatlies coming our way , bad form of some players. I am not covering for anyone .
But we could be in worse straits. Look at Arsey and Liverpulled.
Just a blip for us and we’re not even firing on all cylinders..
Yes , I’m optimistic , Always have been .
Even when Raneiri took us past ARSEY in the CL a few years back I thought we were going all the way.
So enjoy the second half of the season.
Our bad luck has certainly passed
And just a thought MID-FiELD decider , One plus one does not necessarily make two in football or life ,although some of ur comments were quite on the mark . Cheers for the concern for a great team. But I believe we have got “it” , ” the balls ” ” the people” to pull outta this shitty period.
We are not Real Madrid and thank goodness for that.
15. blue champion
Romanholiday!
I like ya. Never-say-die supporter!
16. Manish
Supporting your team is good but it must be realistic not chauvinistic….self criticism/assessment is the best mean to improve yourself….a team like Chelsea can’t remorse on missed chances or injuries for its failure….we have to admit that this summer’s signings have been awful…and more importantly we have been playing shitty football….but I am sure we have touched our nadir and now going up is the only thing possible…..
PAINT IT BLUE
17. blue champion
We all agree that we could have done better this season. With just 6 pts off, with such ‘poor performance’, with another half season to play, it is NOT blind following to say that WE WILL WIN THE TITLE. When many of the Man Utd supporters still believe that Chelsea will be crowned Champions, it is sad to see some Chelsea fans losing hopes on the title!
18. RomanHoliday
Lose heart , lose everything
That’s the way it goes in football and in life
Belief is so different from blind support
I hope we have only the former
Anyone back from the depths of the shit of life knows it is only grit, hope and belief in something or someone ( mostly urself) that can pull u outta “situations “.
( Maybe I’m one of them )
And I am not gonna concede the title to anyone just cause we’re going thru a bad patch.
The situation CFC is in at the moment is nothing compared with the real life tragedies and challenges that people face .
So if lots of people can keep their chins up , put up a brave face , deal with and overcome adversity. Why not CFC ?
( Sorry for the philosophizing)
19. blue champion
Very true Romanholiday!
When we had a blip last season, Jose was asked if he is under pressure. And Super Jose said: “Pressure? what pressure? pressure is for millions of parents who are not able to feed their children”
20. Anonymous
Ok guys,
Let’s hope for the brighter future
May the lightning strike Jose leaving him unwounded but making him wiser than he has been so far this season. LOL!
“HOPE IS THE GOOD THING AND THE GOOD NEVER DIES”
MIDFIELS DECIDER
21. danny b
look i dnt think sheva is bringing any kinda positiveness to the chelsea attack .may be he has not adpated to the english football.or may be jose should start him frm scratch cos when he comes on as a sub he tries to over impress and thats not helping..i would prefer swp to sheva
22. true blue
keep drogba he keeps the team together and wins the games rofl
23. true blue
keep drogba he keeps the team together and wins the games rofl =p
Chelsea Team
Hilario
Ferreira
Carvalho
Boulahrouz
A Cole
Essien
Makelele
Lampard
Wright-Phillips
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