Aston Villa 0-3 Chelsea: Wembley Home from Home
See You in May
By Since66
April 11 2010
Perhaps John Terry, our inspirational leader and captain does have an eye for management. He said after the 7-1 win over Villa two weeks ago that Villa looked 'tired' after an hour and took some serious flack for it - yesterday it was deja vu and bye bye bye Villa as Villa flagged, failed and flunked.
Even the Villa fans said the same. However had Howard Webb awarded Villa a first-half penalty when Mikel brought down Agbonlahor the scenario may have been completely different this morning.
From my seat directly behind the goal, it was a stonewall penalty. Either Webb bottled it, or he saw something else that nobody else did. It was a decision that enraged Villa's boss Martin O'Neill as he jumped around on the touchline like a demented leprechaun on heat.
The first-half was a drab dreary affair. Villa were the better side although they failed to trouble Cech. Milner skimmed a shot past the post as did Joey Cole past Villa's.
The newly-laid pitch was atrocious, heavily watered before the start, akin to an ice-skating rink with players slipping all over the place. Milner decided it was so bad that he changed his boots midway through the first-half.
The second-half was better and again despite their attacking intentions, Villa failed to trouble Cech. Carew had a header that went past the post and then Chelsea took the lead in front of the Blue faithful.
From a corner that was partially cleared, JT shot back in and Didier stuck out a foot to place the ball past Friedel into the corner of the net.
Chelsea's 2nd came from a Ballack cross for Malouda to stab home and Super Frank added a third seconds from time.
Prior to the game at Stamford Bridge Martin O'Neill wanted a hat-trick of Villa victories. Sorry Martin your 'hat-trick' finished Chelsea 2-1 Aston Villa, goals scored 11, goals conceded 3.
Aston Villa: Friedel, Cuellar, Collins, Dunne, Warnock, Downing, Petrov (c), Milner, A Young, Agbonlahor, Carew (Heskey 81)
Chelsea: Cech, Ferreira, Alex, Terry (c), Zhirkov, Deco (Ballack 76), Mikel, Lampard, J Cole (Kalou 64), Drogba (Anelka 79), Malouda
Goals: Drogba 66, Malouda 88, Lampard 90
Booked: Deco 51, Terry 73, Mikel 83
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Looked like a definite pen to them though. I can only imagine that the ref spotted the shirt tugging on Mikel and thought 6 of one half a sozen of the other.
"It is born out of hypocrisy and fundamental insecurity. There have been two kids on the block for the past 12 years. Suddenly, there is a third and that one is threatening to be more successful than the others and they don’t like it." P Kenyon.