Chelsea 4 Aston Villa 4

Dec 27 2007 By Bill Howell

ENA Sharples, Elsie Tanner and Annie Walker had only been frequenting the Rovers Return for a little over a week on Granada TV when Villa last hit four at Stamford Bridge.

But 47 years of Coronation Street have rarely dished up such drama as was served to over 41,000 festively-fattened supporters here. It was that rare commodity: value for money at Chelsea. But Martin O'Neill – who was not even cheered by the visiting fans singing "We've Got The Special One" – was in no mood to offer referee Phil Dowd his seasonal greetings. And Michael Ballack, who can best be described as a "gravity-challenged" player, can expect frosty treatment too.

It was December 1960 when Bobby Thomson (2), Ron Wylie and James MacEwan scored in Villa's 4-2 win off the Kings Road. And with pace throughout this team the one thing you can say with some confidence this season, is that O'Neill's lot carry a bag-load of goal threats.

What they don't tend to do is concede too many, and the fact that they did here had quite a lot to do with match official Dowd, who was conned, big-style, for Chelsea's vital first goal.

O'Neill was left feeling rather cheated by Dowd's inability to get one major decision right. In fact, Dowd got two out of four correct. Better, but still not good enough.

Zat Knight's sending-off and Andriy Shevchenko's penalty left Villa with 10 men and staring at a likely defeat at half-time despite having been much, much the better team.

It was a crucial turning point. Had the whistle blown for half-time a minute earlier then Chelsea's 71-game unbeaten home record would surely have ended. Dowd was last in charge of Villa in their 4-0 romp at Blackburn when Mark Hughes was the one left pulling his hair out at a disallowed goal and a sending-off.

But if Villa owed the Stoke referee one after that particular evening, Dowd took more than his fair share of goodwill back.

Villa's last game in London was a thrilling 4-4 draw at Tottenham. Their next trip to the capital takes them to Fulham at the beginning of February, and who would bet against another glut of goals then?

Make no mistake though, while the 4-4 draw at White Hart Lane was a chastening experience for the supporters, this was sweet.

Boxing Day has, in recent years, been a traditional day for Villa's fans to have long, sad faces buried behind nail-bitten, frost-bitten hands. Three wins in 15 years of Premier League fixtures is not the stuff of legends.

So you could forgive the majority of the travelling army for perhaps believing that Gareth Barry's injury-time penalty was doomed to balloon over the crossbar. But Barry showed cool composure to ram the ball home and secure a point.

Ballack appeared to have snatched victory for Chelsea with a dubious free-kick three minutes from time – Dowd's second big error of the afternoon. But after Ashley Cole had been sent off for handling Gabriel Agbonlahor's shot on the line, Barry capped a magnificent display by earning Villa a point that was the very least their inventive play deserved.

Shaun Maloney's double had put Villa on course for their first double against Chelsea since 1990 but disaster struck when Knight was sent off on the stroke of half-time for a marginal push on Ballack.

It was a harsh dismissal and Shevchenko's penalty sparked a Chelsea fightback that was complete when the Ukrainian striker fired a stunning 25-yard second and then set up Alex, who finished clinically to give Chelsea an unlikely 3-2 lead.

But to Villa's credit, they never buckled and Martin Laursen, on target twice in that 4-4 draw at Spurs, escaped a static defence to level and set up a dramatic climax.

Chelsea, who were already missing John Terry and Didier Drogba for the Christmas schedule, also lost Ricardo Carvalho for three games following his red card. Dowd got that one right.

The Portuguese defender fouled Agbonlahor with an horrific two-footed challenge.

Villa were breathtakingly brilliant in that first half. They had forced five corners in the opening 11 minutes to leave Chelsea gasping for breath.

They capitalised on Chelsea's lethargy to ease 2-0 ahead shortly before the interval thanks to a rare blunder from Petr Cech.

Maloney pulled clear on the left flank and darted into the area before scoring with an attempt that Cech missed completely. Maloney's effort should have been routine but the goalkeeper allowed the ball to bounce in front of him and watched in horror as it slipped into the net.

Cech could not be blamed for the first Villa goal, however, as Agbonlahor skipped into space and picked out John Carew, whose looping header was prodded home by Maloney.

Curtis Davies appeared after the interval to plug the gap in the defence left by Knight's exit with Maloney, the hero of the first half, the unfortunate one to make way.

Shevchenko fired a stunning 50th-minute equaliser. Salomon Kalou teed up the chance and the £25million striker made no mistake, sprinting on to the ball and smashing it home. Villa were struggling and when Shevchenko skilfully teed up Alex, they looked beaten. But far from it as Laursen escaped a static defence to finish from Ashley Young's free-kick.

Chelsea appeared to have struck the decisive blow when Laursen's tackle on Joe Cole was penalised by Dowd and Ballack converted a direct free-kick. But the drama was only just beginning.

CHELSEA (4-4-2): Cech; Ferreira, Alex, Carvalho, A Cole; Kalou, Essien, Lampard (Ballack, 26), J Cole; Pizarro (Mikel Obi, 85), Shevchenko (Wright-Phillips, 82). Not used: Hilario, Ben-Haim.
VILLA (4-4-1-1): Carson 7; Mellberg 8, Laursen 8, Knight 6, Bouma 7 (Harewood, 90); Agbonlahor 8, Reo-Coker 8, BARRY 8, Young 8; Maloney 8 (Davies ht, 7), Carew 8 (Moore, 78). Not used: Taylor, Gardner.
Referee: P Dowd (Staffordshire).