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Aston Villa - Liverpool
Aston Villa
The last time I was at Villa park was for the semi-final against Manchester United a
couple of seasons ago. Whilst the stadium is very impressive, the pitch resembled the
muddy sand at Weston Super Mare, so I had some trepidation at how we would fare in this
game.
However, my fears were miss-placed, the pitch looked pretty mint and Chelsea lined up in
the now familiar 4-4-2 formation, whilst Villa opted for 5 at the back. De Goey kept his
place in goals, then Babayaro and Sinclair took left and right back respectively, Lebouef
and Myers at centre half, Petrescu right midfield, Nicholls left midfield, with Morris and
Newton in the middle. Zola and Hughes played up front, but to exploit Villa's three
defenders Zola dropped back almost into midfield so that three marked Hughes and left Zola
free to roam (or that seemed to be the idea anyway).
There was a good atmosphere in the ground, the Holte end seemed in good voice, (I usually
judge this by seeing if you can hear the oppo when all the people in your own stand are
singing - this was the case
at the start of the game). Villa started with a good flurry forcing a couple of corners.
Yorke looked lively in the box and Villa were finding good width from the full backs
Wright and Nelson. Franck Lebouef was having one of those games where he seemed to have a
telepathic understanding with the Villa midfield and intercepted a lot of passes that may
have caused more trouble. Myers played quite well. He battled hard for the ball and was a
little clumsy but overall there were only one or two examples taken from the Chelsea
book of schoolboy defending.
We were decidedly lightweight in midfield, Newton grew in authority as the game went by,
but too often Draper ran straight up the pitch and seemed to have bags of space and no
challenge until he had nearly
reached the penalty area. The player primarily to blame for this was Jody Morris, but he
did show lively invention around the box and put in a couple of sweet crosses so it is not
as though he had a shocking
game, its just that we lacked a bit of bite in midfield without Wise, Poyet or di Matteo
(but then again which team wouldn't?) On the right flank Petrescu and Sinclair overlapped
well, but it was Sinclair and not Petrescu that put in telling crosses and looked
threatening. On the left flank, Nicholls did well to contain the impressive Alan Wright
and Babayaro showed some good trickery going forwards and defended quite well. Sometimes
though, he has a tendency to just hoof the ball aimlessly up the pitch, and I do get the
feeling that he
does indeed have a lot to learn about positioning and making the right choices with the
ball. Ability shines through nevertheless! I get the impression that he is already well
liked in the stands.
So the pattern of the game in the first half was like this. Villa would drive up the
pitch, threaten but not ever get a clear shot on target or force a save from a header.
Chelsea kept the ball well when they got it, but would be too elaborate on the edge of the
box and often failed to create a chance in the penalty area due to the sheer weight of
numbers of Villa defenders in front of them. It wasn't until late in the second half with
the game already secure that the cunning ploy of a shoot from distance was tried.
Of early Chelsea promise, Hughes volloyed a nicely tee-ed up ball from about 16 yards
woefully over the bar, he also came in late from the left hand side to meet a right sided
Sinclar cross at the far post. He did well to get to the ball and was unfortunate that his
foot was slightly over the middle of the ball and his effot lacked
power.
After about 20 or so minutes Villa were awarded a penalty. It was at the far end so I
couldn't say if it was or wasn't, but the lack of protest shows that it probably was.
Yorke blazed his penalty high and wide. In fact, if the goal was twice as high and twice
as wide, it may still have missed. Confidence visibly drained from the Villa players in
the way that it used to from Chelsea players in the Hoddle days.
After about 40 minutes Hughes chased a lost cause that Southgate was shepherding out for a
goal kick, his persistance won him a corner. It left me to suppose at the time that
football often favours the brave and it was just like the footy gods to compund
Southgate's error and for Chelsea to score. The cross came over and Sinclair leapt
spectacularly into the goal area a full three or four seconds before the ball arrived.
This caused some confusion in the Villa ranks and left Hughes, seemingly unmarked at the
far post to squeeze the ball
past Oakes.
Celebrations were muted as Sinclair lay pole-axed in the goal area. It looked like he had
landed on his elbow. The crowd held there breath to see if he would up as a concerned Zola
and Hughes looked on. He rose to his feet and Zola gave him a touching arm around the
shoulder and ruffle of the hair. Team spirit certainly seems to be alive, well and
genuine.
So the first half ended and it wouldn't be too harsh to say that chelsea were fortunate on
the balance of play to go in ahead. However, the defence had always been effective without
defending particularly well, and although often over elaborate in attack and anonymous in
midfield, we still looked more likely to score as the
ball did find its way into the danger area from corners and crosses.
At the start of the second half, di Matteo came out with no tracksuit bottoms on. It was
clear that a substitution was soon to be made, and the crowd favourite was Nicholls for
this role. Di Matteo
came on for Morris after about 10 minutes and Chelsea immediately looked more solid in
mdifeld. However Hughes was almost constantly offside, sometimes the ball was played or
cleared form quite deep in the half, so either he was having a shocker, the defense were
playing extremely efficiently (unlikely with three at the back) or the AR was a bit flag
happy (which I throw in as a suggestion and nothing more). It is impossible to tell from
behind the goal so I guess a combination of all three but especially option 1.
As the game wore on Newton looked more authoritative, Draper's runs were less frequent,
and Alan Wright's threat extinguished. Gullit moved to firm things up and secure at least
a 1-0 victory. He brought on the pedestrian Clarke for Petrescu and Flo for Zola. Hughes
was dropped back so he wouldn't be caught offside quite so often.
Villa brought on Milosovic in an attempt to change their luck up front. The first thing he
did was to hurl the ball into the hoardings in a show of petulance that would no doubt
have had Brian Little licking his lips in anticipation for the after match bollocking he
would give out. This was after he had been easily dispossesed by Babayaro and then fouled
him.
Soon after the Chelsea fans sensing victory stood up for a hearty chorus of we all follow
the Chelsea, that seemed to go on for ages and rang earily around the ground. Perhaps it
was sung too soon and we would leave with the proverbial egg face mask. However Clarke
crossed from a threatening looking position. Instead of souring over all heads as seasoned
Clarke watchers were expecting it picked out Flo unchallenged at the far post who made it
2 with a firm header.
Villa fans left in their droves whilst their players stepped up one last panic effort to
pull some respect out of the bag. Draper made one of his runs and a shot with glory
written all over it was tipped past the post by de Goey. Our flappable Dutch keeper
followed this up moments later with another top drawer stop from Milosovic. It was good to
see that we didn't concede our traditonal late goal in order to ruin the day. The final
whistle went ad Gullit congratulated every player as they left the field of play.
Chelsea put in a solid performance and took thier few chances well. A professional
performace but certainly not a classy one. The sort of thing that successful teams do. Win
games easily without playing out of their skins. A nice thing to see.
Villa? They are not a bad side, but they do desperately need to start scoring goals. They
are crying out for a striker, but the longer it goes until someone starts banging them in,
the more nervy things will be.
It is characteristic of Chelsea under Gullit I think, that it is often hard to put your
finger on who a man of the match would be.Sinclair, Hughes, Babayaro and Newton all had
good games. Myers was bubbling under but gets a black mark for a couple of weak headers
and giving away a peno. So Lebouef gets the vote from me. Well done Frank and well done
Chelsea
Liverpool
I am typing this report in a high pitched voice, so that if any Liverpool supporters get
to read it they will find it easier to understand.
My first ever trip to Anfield and only my second game of the season. I had been looking
forward to this game, two attractive passing sides, the promise on reputation of a lively
crowd atmosphere. A full blooded premiership encounter, could Chelsea break their Anfield
hoodoo?
Reality has a nasty habit of slapping you in the face. We arrived in Liverpool and the
engine of the car hadn't even been switched off, when a cheeky young scouse face appeared
in the window. Training for racketeering starts young in Liverpool. We made the short
treck to the ground, it was particularly striking that Liverpool is like a ghost town.
There wasn't a soul anywhere, for sure I had spotted plenty of
Liverpool fans travelling up, but where were the hoards of locals strolling to the
stadium? On the Everton side of Stanley Park, there was a fleet of coaches that would have
done Old Trafford proud. Is it not ironic that the dominance of football by northern teams
is funded by the south?
As we approached Anfield we were treated to some of the most offensive graffiti I have
seen in a long while. It seems that Chelsea aren't the only club blighted by the National
Front neanderthals. The scouse equivalent, by the way, can't spell (that or they don't
like posh people called Nigel very much), and they can't draw swastika's properly either.
This led me to consider a common link between the
traditional Liverpool scapegoats, David James, Phil Babb, Michael Thomas, and, before they
left, John Barnes and Stan Collymore. Perhaps Paul Ince will change things?
We got into the ground and Paul Mason, who I travelled with, introduced me to some more
netters, Chris Carver, and Michael Druce. Then my other travelling companions John and
Julia revealed that David Elleray was the ref. It was at that moment that I knew that we
were going to get nothing from this game. As the minutes ticked down, that song was played
on the Tannoy, greeted at the Chelsea end, with fine renditions of 'F**k 'em All' and 'The
Blue Flag', greeted at the Kop end with raised scarfs and erm... silence? A truly surreal
experience.
The game kicked off and soon settled in to harsh tackles from both side. Lambourde was
desevedly booked for nearly cutting McMananamen in too. Macca, however, is a whinging twat
frequently going to the referee clutching
parts of his legs, expect rumours of a transfer to Manchester to surface soon. By this
time, the Liverpool crowd had shown there true colours. Presumably the fair minded,
passionate famous crowds of the past have been priced out of the game. The Liverpool crowd
of the nineties, do not sing, cheer more loudly when an opposing striker blazes over the
bar than when their own team scores, whistle constantly when the oppo have the ball, and
give the referee the bird for every single decision that does not go their way. Towards
the end of the game they started chanting 'Blue Shite' at an AR. They had virtually every
decision in the sodding game, what more?
In the first fifteen minutes or so, Le Saux had already put two crosses into the Kop and
had hoofed too many aimless balls down the line. Improvement is definately needed if he is
not going to take his familiar route to the Chelsea bench. After a quarter of an hour or
so the suspicion that Le Saux was having the proverbial nightmare were confirmed, from
just behind the goal, it looked like he was beaten for pace to the bounce of the ball, and
Berger produced a top drawer finish to lob the keeper for 1-0. Having since seen it on TV,
I see that Le Saux was the victim of an outrageous bounce, so perhaps I was a little
harsh.
Within a couple of minutes, Zola was left unmarked as Kvarme ran into Hughes, the
Liverpool defence stopped dead, but Zola continued to finish with equal aplomb to Berger.
Was it a foul? To my eyes, Hughes stood his ground and Kvarme, tried to run through him so
no, no different to a defender shepherding a ball into touch for a goal kick.
After 20 odd minutes Lambourde needlessly brought down Macca again, and had
to go. The Chelsea defence had shot themselves in the foot, handed the game to Liverpool
on a plate. Our defensive formations and tactics really do need sorting out. Cool heads
and good organisation are required, and are not there. Liverpool did the job of beating
ten men admirably and well. They got good width, exploited the spaces, and strong running
from Berger and Fowler reaped rewards. The second came fairly soon, Macca broke down the
left, Sinclair over commited (hot heads again) and the rest of their defence opted to
defend the middle rather than pressure Bjornebye, who crossed unchallenged, for the
unmarked Berger to pick his spot and slot home.
Just before half time, Elleray who must be red colour blind, denied us a definate penalty
when Jones brought down Poyet. At 2-2 it would have been a different game. The second half
saw Liverpool kill off the game once, as Chelsea went for broke and pressed for an
equaliser. At 3-1 down, Flo came on as Hughes was being consistently outpaced by Kvarme.
Chelsea instantly looked more threatening up front, but one has to wonder whether Flo
would actually ever have scored if he was still there today. Earlier Zola was subbed for
Gullit to shore things up at the back. Zola was roundly booed, which considering the big
game approaching was understandable. However, Gullit was given the same treatment, which I
found baffling. Confronted with one of the best players the world has ever seen, a player
of breathtaking presence and class, you boo him? It is a *privelidge* to watch the man, it
could be his last game, you never know, and the Liverpool fans chose to boo him. It would
be easy, given the graffiti I spotted earlier, to put this one-eyed
approach to one of the World's greats down to nothing more than the colour of his skin. It
left a sour taste.
Fowler soon made if 4-1 before Gullit, clean through, caught his studs in the turf and
fell over. It shows we are all human I suppose. (The ghost of Paul Furlong is turning in
his grave.) Liverpool, fairly assured of victory took their foot off the gas and brought
on McAteer to a fine chorus of 'Your not very good' and did his best to prove it. Perhaps
Evans is putting McAteer in the shop window, if so, it is having the effect of reducing
his market value.
What followed displayed Elleray's fine grasp of the Laws of the Game. Players who have
cuts are required to leave the field of play Mr Elleray, so why call on the trainer?
Players are only allowed onto the field of play when there is a stoppage,
so why wave him back onto the pitch when there is a Chelsea attack in full flow? These are
tiny details, but I mention them to underline the impression I get that Elleray makes
things up as he goes along. If he can't get laws 1 - 7 right, what
hope does he have getting things like Law 12 right? Did I say biased red bastard? Surely
not.
At the last McAteer crudely brought down Flo, and even Elleray couldn't deny
this was a penalty. Poyet took it well, and the game finished, with Chelsea still plugging
away.
Full marks for effort lads, and no marks for densive organisation. What is
it with French centre halves?
Jonno
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