Villa end 2011 with a bang as they pulled off a stunning and remarkable 3-1 victory over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. Alex McLeish got everything right today, from line up to substitutions as Villa frustrated Chelsea over and over.
Villa was under the cosh inside a minute as Mata found space on the right but Collins blocked his dangerous cross.
Villa conceded corners quickly as Chelsea decided it was their best route against a team that has conceded 57% of their goals from set pieces.
Villa began to settle and tried to pass the ball on the floor and a tricky cross from Albrighton found Agbonlahor’s head, but Luis did well.
Villa started to control the midfield, with Ireland looking bright and Agbonlahor getting the first touch on every pass to him.
Chelsea went ahead against the run of play. Collins lunged into a tackle that was not a good idea, on Ramirez, who squeezed a ball through to Drogba and Dunne made a ill thought out tackle with his right foot, which was all wrong. The ref hesitated and then decided it was a pen. DROGBA slipped the ball under Guzan’s body from the spot.
Villa hit back quickly with a good response. Chelsea’s defence looked vulnerable. Ireland opened them up, but his final pass deflected and went behind Albrighton.
Chelsea began to believe in itself and pegged Villa back, but there was no final ball. It seemed they were more content to slam crosses at defenders and turn to the ref to give another penalty.
Villa came back again and got back on level terms. Ireland’s quick flash shot was handled on the line by John Terry, but IRELAND was first to the rebound and scored before anyone could appeal. Strangely the ref did not go back and red card Terry for the deliberate handball, but it was par for the course as every decision seemed to go for the Blues.
Chelsea started the 2nd half with Mata again getting behind the defence with a great cross that missed everybody. Villa defence did a good job of keeping Guzan from having to make any saves, but at the other end Petr Cech had to be at his best to stop Agbonlahor 1 on 1 in a box to box breakaway. Collins half volleyed to N’zogbia who ran forward, released Albrighton whose first time pass got by Luis. Gabby’s shot was nervous though. He deserved a goal for his sheer battling and his war with Luis was legendary.
Chelsea sent on Lampard and Torres and the two started opening Villa up. Torres cracked the woodwork with a tremendous strike with his first touch. Villa was reeling. Torres put Drogba through, but his shot went wide. Guzan turned a stunning strike over the bar and McLeish had seen enough. The Scot took off his two wide men N’zogbia and Albrighton off and added Darren Bent and a debut for Gary Gardner.
Gabby moved into midfield, Gardner took right midfield and after taking a couple of minutes to settle, Villa took over the game. Chelsea had no answer for Villa’s suddenly strong midfield and Villa started surging forward. Bent was mugged twice in the box by 2 different defenders in the space of about 3 seconds and still emerged to get the ball. I think the ref must have played advantage. He’d done that earlier when Gabby was fouled and Ireland with 2 defenders on him struggled to pass the ball to Cuellar, some advantage! Anyway…the ball came to Clarke at some point in midfield somehow, I was too busy screaming for a penalty and his perfect pass found the injured Petrov who had stormed down field like a wounded warrior and PETROV calmly struck the ball home like a seasoned forward. Stilyan ‘freaking’ ‘Lineker!
Mcleish was ready to defend the lead, he took off Ireland, but Petrov said no, he had to go. The captain would have given anything to stay on, but he knew that Ireland was in better shape than himself.
Any thoughts of playing out time defensively ended with a sloppy pass from Lampard 2 minutes later. Ireland was one on one with Cech after the interception, but unselfishly played the ball to BENT whose low shot was almost saved by the keepers legs.
Gardner hit a nice little shot in between the goals too that had it been left or right of the keeper would have been nasty for the Czech goal minder.
In the end, the Blues fans were leaving, the Villans dancing on the seats and the remaining Stamford faithful were booing their side off.
Happy New year Sir Doug. This one's for you.