5.[L] Aston Villa v/s Chelsea (PREM )

Date : 2 September 2007
Time : 8:30 IST Aston Villa line up

(4-4-2): Carson; Mellberg, Knight, Laursen, Bouma; Agbonlahor, Barry (c), Reo-Coker, Young; Carew (Petrov 79), Moore.

Chelsea Line Up (4-3-3): Cech; Belletti, Alex, Terry (c), A Cole; Mikel (Pizarro 56), Makelele (Kalou 63), Essien; Wright-Phillips (J Cole 63), Drogba, Malouda. Referee :Mark Clattenburg Crowd :37,714


A tough away fixture with Villa strengthening their squad with some very good acquisitions during the summer . Considering the injury crisis surrounding Chelsea this encounter
looks even tougher . Lampard has been in a very good goal scoring form for both the club and for England . Losing him a day before the match was a big blow for Mourinho

Mourinho started with a very interesting lineup Mikel,Makelele and Essien all starting together ,
hmm is mourinho scared of the villa attacking lineup ?? Alex getting a start , very intellingent ,with his height and size he can easily tackle the airiel threat provided by Carew ,who has been in very good touch recently.

I would have prefered to start with Joe Cole instead of Makelele or Mikel . Chelsea enjoyed a very good share of the possession through out the match ,but still created very few chances .
It was only after the introduction of Joe after half time that Chelsea seamed to create chances.
There was a time during the match when Chelsea enjoyed 80% of the possesion . still Chelsea lost 0-2 . Sad very sad. Maybe the Footballing Gods were not with the more dominant , the more attacking ,the more classy team . Add to this the injury to Drogba .

This match really showed the value of Lampard in this very Lavishly assembled Chelsea lineup.

Chelsea Slipping from the top and only 2 points in front of MANU :( .

Chelsea after 5 matches 10 points and position 3

Goal scorers for the match
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Knight (46')(Aston Villa)
Agbonlahor(88')(Aston Villa)

Chelsea Goal scorers in the Premiership
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Pizarro-1
Malouda-1
Essien -1
Lampard-3
Drogba -1