It has been a truly awful couple of days for Aston Villa and its fans, compounding an already awful couple of seasons. The news that came out about skipper Stiliyan Petrov and his diagnosis of Leukaemia and retirement was a shock to all and we all hope he can beat this awful disease.

The fans paid tribute before and during the game at home to Chelsea and the young Villa side battled hard but was always second best to an experienced Chelsea side.

Torres should have scored early, but put his shot straight at Given. Minutes later STURRIDGE tapped home after good work by Chelsea in Villa’s box.

Chelsea was in full control of the game, Villa had a few moments of their own with some pretty interplay, none better than the 19^th minute when the entire crowd rose and paid tribute to the striken  number 19.

Chelsea kept the pressure up with a shot from Mata that hit the post with Torres missing his 3^rd chance to score thanks to brave defending from Baker and Collins.

Gabby almost got Villa on terms when his snap shot was kicked clear by a seemingly beaten Cech in goal.

Second half saw Villa start brightly, but conceded a corner that they really could have avoided with better communication and Baker missed the ball allowing IVANOVIC to score his first of the season.

Chelsea was playing in second gear, they really weren’t creating much up front and weren’t being bothered much at the back, so it was a surprise when Villa climbed back into the game. Lichaj took a throw in, after Weimann had worked hard down the right, and COLLINS headed the ball over Cech, his 3^rd header at goal and 1^st one on target.

Minutes later Villa drew level. Substitute Albrighton looking a completely different player to the one at the Emirates easily beat Ivanovic and his cross was turned in at the far post by LICHAJ.

While Chelsea had played better, Villa deserved to be level just due to their pluck and Chelsea’s refusal to respect them and it should have been worse for the visitors when Gabby was through on goal with just the keeper to beat, but was called back because Terry had flung himself to the ground in a desperate and successful attempt to win a free kick.

Chelsea then won a corner and again Baker missed it and again IVANOVIC scored.

Villa tried with everything it had, but Chelsea stood strong and somehow TORRES scored at the end with a shot and a very unconvincing effort by Given. I am believing that we would be no worse off with a Championship keeper to be honest.

Again, like previous weeks, I don’t want to blame this on McLeish, we know the injury toll has wrecked his season and the lack of funds from the ownership has seriously hurt the team, but again he seems to make substitutions at poor times. Weimann may have been hurt, but it seemed we were doing a lot better and Heskey coming on seemed to say, we’ve got the draw, let’s hold on. So many times over the last few seasons, late goals have undone us and once again it was true.

In the end 4-2 flattered the visitors; hopefully the kids can take the positives and build on the negatives. I do like that they play the ball around, but they have to move it faster. We had a break late on. Gabby did extremely well and had Bannan on his right. It needed the just right pass. Not, too far where the right back can get to it, just enough that he could have run into its path. Instead, Gabby dropped it to where Barry had to stop. Then the Scot slowed it down even more allowing every Chelsea player to get back and the opportunity died.

Nobody had great games and nobody had a bad game. It was what it was, but there was an extraordinary effort from Gabby, Weimann and Warnock. But, we really needed Stan out there. We’ll miss you captain.