A battling performance by Gerard Houllier’s side this afternoon leaves Chelsea outside the top four looking in as the New Year was heralded in by a cracking game at Stamford Bridge.
With Arsenal, Spurs and both Manchester sides all winning yesterday, the onus was on the champions to follow suit, but the visitors spoiled the party by snatching a last-gasp leveller to leave London with a point -as well as their tally of seven yellow cards- in a markedly physical contest.
Frank Lampard’s spot-kick opener suggests he has regained the position as number one penalty taker, following Didier Drogba’s miss at Tottenham a couple of weeks ago. In spite of this, Drogba’s goal and assist takes his Fantasy Premier League (FPL) total to 20 points (pre-Bonus Point allocation) in the last three game weeks, which, happily for his Fantasy Owners, is more in line with his early season points returns, a huge improvement on the 17 points in his previous seven game weeks, 11-17.
Remarkably, Chelsea had failed to score more than one goal in a league match since game week ten but, facing a porous Villa defence, they at least found themselves amongst the goals going forward, though a poor defensive performance will have done little to instill confidence in Carlo Ancelotti’s title ambitions. They now have chalked up just one clean sheet in their last eight league games.
The nature of the draw, in particular, will be bitterly disappointing to the Italian, as Chelsea, having trailed for most of the second half, seemed set to win it at the death only to throw away their lead seconds from the final whistle, with Houllier’s side scoring more than one goal in an away game for only the second time this season.
Most pleased of all, undoubtedly, will be Sir Alex Ferguson, whose Man United side now lead their rivals by six points with a game in hand, as Chelsea’s hangover now continues into 2011.
