Dominant But Disappointing, Its Still Early Days!
By 41 Years A Blue
October 1 2006
Once upon a time Newcastle United couldn't get a point in London in the League and now Aston Villa have made three trips to the Capital prior to yesterday (Arsenal, West Ham and Watford, not that you can count Watford as London but most do)....
...... and got three draws and they came to Stamford Bridge and got another draw despite conceding an extremely early goal to the Champions. From a well taken Arjen Robben free-kick, Didier Drogba stumbled the ball over the line after JT challenged Villa's goalkeeper Sorensen and the ball dropped kindly to 'The Dids.' It was his fifth Premierhip goal in seven matches and his fourth goal in two matches. For the next fifteen minutes Chelsea were superb. Patience football in its build-up, Robben terrorising down the left and the Villa goal leading a charmed life especially when Sorensen got a part of his body to a vicious Lampard shot which should have gone in but didn't. After that the next seventy-five minutes was a mystery when every Chelsea player was guilty of mis-timing a pass that either went to a Villa player or out of play. Once Petrov forced Cech into a diving save, Villa's confidence increased as did many many of Chelsea's mis-timed passes. Angel raised one over Cech's bar from Barry's corner, Sorensen made another fine save from Lampard after Robben beat three Villa defenders before sending in a low cross and then in one swift attack Cech had to deal with a Villa cross that had deflected off Carvalho. Lampard fizzed another one in, which hit Drogba flush in the back and then the inevitable happened to be fair. Chelsea cleared a Villa free-kick not very well, Davis planted a cross straight onto Ridgewell's head who was unmarked in the box, he then headed the ball back for Gabriel Agbonlahor to glance an equaliser past a despairing Cech dive. Once the second-half started Villa showed their hand of avoiding defeat which would have been the case in the first-half had Chelsea not taken an early lead. Chances rained down on the Villa goal. Sorensen tipped a Sheva 25 yarder over the bar, Wright-Phillips hit the underside of the bar with a cross shot, Kalou shot across Sorensen and as the ball bounced up from Sorensen's save, Lampard couldn't get a firm direction on his header and the ball went just wide. Angel at the other end had a chance to win it for Villa, when he volleyed into the side netting and right on full-time Kalou glanced a header just wide. Now its ANOTHER break for Euro 2008 Qualiifers, then Chelsea return to action against Reading away on 14th October. COME ON CHELSEA! 41 YEARS A BLUE