And with that, I’ll be off. The match report is here. Bye!
Barney Ronay was shivering in the Stamford Bridge press box this evening. Here is his match report:
On a bitterly chill night at Stamford Bridge Chelsea and Aston Villa fought out a raucous, feisty 1-1 draw that will leave Dean Smith the happier manager.
For Frank Lampard a point here made it one from a possible 10 over 17 days either side of Christmas. Chelsea were bitty and fretful at times, and convincing at others, but there was no lack of effort or fight from the players.
Villa produced a fine, resilient performance and might easily have won the game, even if Anwar El Ghazi’s second-half goal was helped by a weak piece of defending from Andreas Christensen, who injured his own foot trying to foul Jack Grealish.
Much more here:
Frank Lampard looks stern as he speaks to Amazon:
We started really well. Villa had some moments but we came through the first half really good. Second half, we conceded a goal with a man on the floor, that’s kind of the run we’re on at the minute. And then we pushed, and we couldn’t break the deadlock in the end to get the win. But attitude wise it was really good, against a good team.
Christian Pulisic was really bright all game. He created a few chances for himself, and a lot of our play was really good. And when you’re in a bit of a tough moment sometimes things don’t go for you. A month ago, probably we win that game. You have to fight through it, but I can’t ask for more than what the players gave.
Giroud gets on the end of things in the box and we have to deliver for him, and we did with the build-up to that goal. Nobody let me down tonight. Everyone worked, after playing two days ago, we didn’t quite get the rub of the green in a way.
On Manchester City’s Covid issues, and the possibility of some postponements in his team’s near future:
I think we all sense that the next month might be a tough one, with what’s been happening before Christmas with Covid in general, the surge and the difficulties the public has got. Football is secondary in a sense. If we don’t play we’ll keep working and keep everyone safe, that’s first and foremost.
Dean Smith has a chat:
I thought we started the first half really well, then I felt they started switching play a little too easy. We dealt with that a little bit at half-time and looked better for it. But there were some tired legs, and you’re just hoping there’s not going to be a mistake that might cost us.
It’s tough turning it round [after falling behind] but I trust the players. It’s a big thing to have that trust with them and they’ve proved that today. We’ve had to battle at times today. There were spells of pressure from both teams, but great to get a point here. You’ve got to be organised when you come here. You look at the players they’ve got, the bench they’ve got, and it’s going to be tough defensively.
On keeping the same team:
You want to play every game, and if they’re doing well, keep playing them. I didn’t name the team today, which is unusual for me, but I wanted to make sure they were alright. We’re a team that wants to win games, but you’ve got to find that balance between defending and attacking.
On John McGinn being quite good:
He’s a wonderful character in the dressing-room. He’s back to his best, it’s good news for us and good news for Scotland. He’s an old-fashioned midfielder, box-to-box, doesn’t mind a tackle, he’s just got everything. And on top of that he’s a wonderful character, and probably the joker in the dressing-room.
And on his team’s targets for the season:
We’re just working game to game. We’ve got a really important period coming up. There’s a lot of strange results in this league, but we’ve proven to ourselves as much as anything, we know we can compete with the best in this league.
Aston Villa ended 2019 positioned 18th in the Premier League.@AVFCOfficial are ending 2020 in 5th place.
— Amazon Prime Video Sport (@primevideosport) December 28, 2020
What a wonderful job Dean Smith is doing 👏 #PLonPrime #CHEAVL pic.twitter.com/dHCrXswFkE
So there it is. A fun game for the most part, with a few excellent performances - Hudson-Odoi and Chilwell for Chelsea, McGinn and the centre-backs for Villa. The visitors didn’t create a lot, but played with ambition in attack and were resolute in defence, and will certainly be happier with the result. Chelsea will feel that the move that led to Villa’s equaliser should instead have ended with a free-kick for a foul on Christensen, and that they would have banked the three points with just a bit more luck or a couple of favourable decisions, but despite the relatively fresh legs six changes brought them seemed to fade badly towards the end. Given the postponement of Manchester City’s game tonight, there seems a decent chance that they will be given a bit of a breather by their next match, at home to City on 3 January, also being called off.
Final score: Chelsea 1-1 Aston Villa
90+5 mins: ...which Mendy claims well, and that’s it!
90+4 mins: Ramsey spins and shoots from the edge of the area, and it comes off a defender and rolls wide. The game will end (probably) with a Villa corner...
90+3 mins: Pulisic is surely tripped just outside Villa’s penalty area, but the referee doesn’t give anything. Play continues, Hudson-Odoi lifts a pass across to Chilwell, and his delicious outside-of-the-left-foot volley flies inches wide of the far post!
Updated
90+1 mins: There will be about four minutes of stoppage time. There was a heady period of about 20 minutes after the equaliser when both teams were in a constant state of nearly-scoring, but it ended a while ago.
89 mins: Chelsea have been pretty good at winning corners, mainly by attempting crosses when a defender is standing 30cm away and getting a handy deflection. They have just won their 10th, which Hause heads clear. Villa were the division’s leading corner-winners coming into this game, seven clear of fourth-placed Chelsea, but as it stands I think Chelsea are going to be No1 tonight.
87 mins: Villa bring Keinan Davis on for Traore.
86 mins: Chelsea’s play in the last 10 minutes or so has seemed to be focused on getting the ball into easy areas in the final third - wide ones, basically - rather than genuinely threatening the Villa goal. They have had a few shots from distance, and a few hopeful crosses, but little goal threat.
83 mins: Cash gets a foot to Chilwell’s low cross but the ball rolls to Werner, who takes a touch and then shoots over the bar!
Updated
82 mins: With his first touch, Ramsey collects Watkins’ header and curls a shot just wide of the far post from 18 yards!
81 mins: Villa make their first substitution, Jacob Ramsey coming on for El Ghazi.
79 mins: Pulisic has a shot from 20 yards or so which was heading over the bar before Martinez got his fingertips to it, and headed even further over the bar afterwards. The corner is headed clear.
77 mins: Cash is fouled midway through his own half, and the camera catches several Chelsea players walking away from the scene, heads shaking, an air of not-our-nightness settling over them.
74 mins: Kante gets himself booked for attempting to win a ball that McGinn was also going for, and not getting it. I can’t say I saw anything that could reasonably be called a foul there.
72 mins: Havertz is also on, replacing Jorginho.
72 mins: That is Giroud’s final action, as Werner comes on to replace him.
71 mins: Giroud and El Ghazi get annoyed with each other for some reason. Azpilicueta intervenes to calm them down, and the referee also intervenes to book them both.
69 mins: Hudson-Odoi has a tasty shot from 25 yards, which Martinez saves well and collects at the second attempt. Surely there are more goals coming here.
69 mins: McGinn hits the bar! The midfielder is a good 30 yards out when he swings his left foot, and with Mendy a spectator it doesn’t quite dip enough!
66 mins: Incredible headed goalline clearance from Konsa! And then a goal disallowed for offside! The corner is played short to Hudson-Odoi, from whose cross Pulisic heads goalwards only for Konsa to somehow get his head in the way! Azpilicueta turns in the loose ball, but the flag is up, Pulisic having been two yards offside.
65 mins: First Grealish then McGinn try to dribble their way through a cluster of Chelsea shirts midway through their own half and fail. Chelsea end up with another corner, which leads to another corner.
64 mins: Another Chilwell cross, this one headed behind for a corner. He and Pulisic have been Chelsea’s key attacking players so far.
63 mins: Timo Werner is warming up, helped by a thick insulated jacket and snood.
59 mins: Another Kante shot from the edge of the area, this time with the right foot, but it’s weak and too close to the keeper.
58 mins: The linesman has changed his flag, and Chelsea have rediscovered a bit of urgency. Kante shoots over the bar from 20 yards with his left foot. Here’s the potential foul in full:
Should @AVFCOfficial's goal have stood?
— Amazon Prime Video Sport (@primevideosport) December 28, 2020
Former Premier League referee @clattenburg1975 believes the right call was made 🎥#PLonPrime #CHEAVL pic.twitter.com/crZvE44dYy
53 mins: I think Grealish pushed the ball to Christensen’s right and ran to his left, leaving his foot in so he could go over and win a free-kick for Villa. In so doing he did basically kick Christensen, who had stuck a leg out in his direction, but there wasn’t a clear case for a foul in either direction, the referee indicated as much immediately, and getting up was really the best thing for both players to do.
51 mins: Christensen wasn’t able to help his side defend that cross because he was 40 yards away, lying on the turf and pretending to have been injured by Grealish, deep in the build-up to the goal. The referee waved play on, and Christensen has now recovered.
Updated
GOAL! Chelsea 1-1 Aston Villa (El Ghazi, 50 mins)
A cross from deep on the right finds El Ghazi free on the far post, and his volley bounces through Mendy’s legs and in!
Updated
48 mins: There’s still nobody keeping track of Chilwell, and he curls a lovely cross into the six-yard box that Villa just about deal with.
46 mins: Peeeeeep! Villa get the second half started, with neither side making any changes at the break.
The players are on their way back out. Giroud’s goal was really quite similar goal to the one he scored against Wolves recently, albeit hit with his head rather than his foot. The man knows how to near-post finish.
Half time: Chelsea 1-0 Aston Villa
45+3 mins: That’s all for now. Villa had an excellent first half-half, but have been decidedly so-so in the second half-half.
Updated
45+1 mins: Azpilicueta is booked for fouling El Ghazi, out on Chelsea’s right. It was barely a foul, and certainly not a booking. “Anyone can phone it in twice a week - the challenge is being at your best twice a week, week-in, week-out while someone else is trying to stop you,” writes Gary Naylor. “It’s mentally as much as anything - if it gets samey, the imagination palls and good enough becomes good enough.”
45+1 mins: There will be a couple of minutes of bonus first-half stoppage time.
44 mins: Chilwell is finding too much space, too often. Someone might have to convince Bertrand Traoré, who as Villa’s right-sided midfielder should really be tracking back to deal with this, to do some actual defending at some point.
41 mins: There was a pretty brief VAR check for offside when the goal was scored, but the decision was a lot tighter than it initially seemed:
It's a game of fine margins 🧐#PLonPrime #CHEAVL pic.twitter.com/JJP6HiNG5g
— Amazon Prime Video Sport (@primevideosport) December 28, 2020
39 mins: Chance for a second! Mount somehow gets through a couple of defenders but his attempted finish, hit when off balance, is off target.
38 mins: Villa have barely touched the ball since Chelsea scored their goal. “I can’t think of any other profession where a grown man would question working twice in three days. With the exception of the current US President, of course,” notes Justin Kavanagh.
Updated
GOAL! Chelsea 1-0 Arsenal (Giroud, 34 mins)
Chelsea work the ball well down the left, Pulisic tees up Chilwell to send in a cross, he picks out Giroud, and his stooping header is excellent and flies just inside the near post!
Updated
32 mins: Chance for Chelsea! It’s a ball in from the right aimed for Giroud; Konsa wins the header but deflects the ball into Cash, who deflects the ball to Pulisic (it could have gone anywhere at this point, including his own net), who bicycle-kicks over the bar from four yards!
30 mins: Chance for Villa! El Ghazi crosses from the left and Mendy flaps it embarrassingly down to Cash, who reaches the ball just before two Chelsea players but half-volleys wide!
28 mins: Nearly half an hour in, and it’s pretty much 50-50 on possession (OK, 53-46), level on corners, and Villa lead on shots.
25 mins: Kante fouls McGinn, about 40 yards from goal. Grealish sends a fine ball into the box from the free-kick, where Hause finds some space and runs onto it, but he lifts his header over the goal.
Updated
21 mins: Kante sends the ball into the heart of Aston Villa’s penalty area, where Pulisic tries an overhead and volleys Cash in the head. There’ll be a bit of a stoppage while he gets looked at by the phsyios.
19 mins: There’s absolutely no doubt that Villa think they can win this, and they are so far giving every bit as good as they’re getting. Traore is the latest to try his luck, cutting onto his left foot but shooting into a defender.
16 mins: Grealish dribbles to the byline, but his pull-back goes behind Watkins, but too far in front of everyone else. “There was a great quote in the early 90s (I think from a Boro player),” writes Mark Hooper, “when the debate was raging about how too much football in the new Premier League era was affecting the national team’s form: ‘It’s not really that bad is it, playing football twice a week? My mates do that too, and the rest of the week they have real jobs. All we do in between is get our haircut!’” That was perhaps true before 1992, when the impression some players give is that training mainly involved exercising one’s pint-holding arm in the pub, but I think (a few hours a day of) genuine work is now expected.
14 mins: An all-action start to the match. No Mount reaches the byline to the left of goal before pulling back and Pulisic runs onto it, but McGinn tracks him and gets a foot in the way of the shot.
13 mins: Villa win a corner, and again Grealish sends the ball straight to a Chelsea player, Mendy this time.
11 mins: Pulisic hits the side netting! Grealish collects the ball from a throw-in and lifts a pass back towards Martinez that floats instead to Pulisic, who runs at the couple of defenders still blocking his path to goal, gets into the area and shoots just wide!
7 mins: From the corner Grealish pulls the ball back to El Ghazi, lurking on the edge of the area, but his first-time shot is deflected and trickles limply to Mendy.
6 mins: And within seconds, a save at the other end! Grealish gets the ball on the left-hand corner of the area, pushes it wide of Kante onto his right foot and attempts the world’s most predictable curling shot towards the far post, which Mendy pushes away.
6 mins: Chelsea have started well and have just had their first shot on target, a falling sidewards volley from Rudiger from a corner which Martinez gathers.
4 mins: Pulisic goes down on the left, under Grealish’s challenge, and is furious when the referee doesn’t give Chelsea a free-kick. I’m with Stuart Attwell: it looked a shameless dive to me.
2 mins: “The focus has been on Lampard’s comments about playing twice in quick succession, but is Evans gambling by making so few changes?” wonders Steve Forstneger. Time I suppose will tell, but a lot of ex-footballers seem pretty sceptical of the idea that there’s any issue with athletes in peak condition playing twice in three days.
1 min: Peeeeeep! The game is on!
The Chelsea team is gathering in the tunnel. Liquidator is ringing out at the Bridge. Action imminent.
Dean Smith has a chat, mainly about the absence of changes to his team:
There’s two trains of thought, there’s rotating and getting fresh legs in or continuing momentum and confidence. I’ve looked them all in the eye and asked them if they’re ready to go again and they’ve told me they are. We’ve shown that we’ve got depth within our squad. They always worry you with the quality of players they’ve got. On their day they’re very, very good in this league.
Frank Lampard has a chat. He says his changes come because “it’s impossible to ask the same XI to play in two days’ time at the same level”, though I thought the point was they were being asked to play at a different leve.
We haven’t had time to train, so the changes were going to come irrespective. it’s impossible to ask the same XI to play in two days’ time at the same level. They have a lot of confidence. We have to be aware of that. If we play at the right levels, with the right intensity, we should be OK, but we have to bring that.
Updated
News here of what should have been today’s third and final Premier League game, which will now need to be rescheduled:
Special hugs for John Terry as he returns to Stamford Bridge:
Frank Lampard promised changes, and he has made six of them. Azpilicueta, Rudiger and Christensen come in as three of the back four are swapped out (James, Zouma and Thiago Silva, since you ask), while further forward Giroud and Hudson Odoi replace Werner and Abraham.
Villa only make one change, and that wasn’t their choice: Mings is suspended, and Konsa comes in.
The temperature is expected to hover between a chilly 2C and and imperceptibly less chilly 3C for the remainder of the day, and it looks like hoods are very much required at Stamford Bridge:
The teams!
The teams are in, and these are those teams:
Chelsea: Mendy, Azpilicueta, Christensen, Rudiger, Chilwell, Kante, Jorginho, Mount, Pulisic, Giroud, Hudson-Odoi. Subs: Arrizabalaga, Thiago Silva, Abraham, Werner, Tomori, Kovacic, Gilmour, Havertz, Emerson Palmieri.
Aston Villa: Martinez, Cash, Hause, Konsa, Targett, Douglas Luiz, McGinn, Traore, Grealish, El Ghazi, Watkins. Subs: Heaton, Taylor, Hourihane, Nakamba, Engels, Guilbert, Elmohamady, Davis, Ramsey.
Referee: Stuart Attwell.
Your starting XI for #CHEAVL! 🤝 pic.twitter.com/JgZsRy7sqr
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) December 28, 2020
⚪ 𝗧𝗘𝗔𝗠 𝗡𝗘𝗪𝗦 ⚪
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) December 28, 2020
This is your Aston Villa team to face Chelsea this evening! 👊#CHEAVL pic.twitter.com/ns9FtVQwKE
Hello world!
The best thing about this fixture from the home side’s point of view is that it gives them a near-instant chance to play the Arsenal defeat, and for that matter the Everton and Wolves defeats, out of their system. They have the division’s second-best home record, not having lost at home in any competition since Liverpool played at Stamford Bridge in September (it’s a weird season, though, and there are four teams with away records at least as good as Chelsea’s home record is, including Aston Villa), and now they have a chance to extend it. Lampard notably accused his players of lacking character at Arsenal on Boxing Day, which will either leave them massively motivated to prove their mettle tonight, or, well, it won’t. If they continue to find motivation elusive, Aston Villa will be ready to punish them. The Villains are a side transformed this season, start the game ahead of Chelsea on goal difference (by one) and only Liverpool, Leeds and Manchester City have taken more shots than them.
In head-to-head news, precisely 50% of the last 10 games between these sides have ended 2-1 to Chelsea. The other five have finished 2-0, 3-0, 4-0 and 8-0 to Chelsea, with Villa claiming a rogue 1-0 home win in March 2014. This combination of teams tends to produce entertainment: just three of the last 21 games between Chelsea and Villa have been drawn, and even they averaged 4⅔ goals each (and one was goalless). For some reason, I’m really looking forward to this one. Welcome!
