Chelsea 3, Aston Villa 3: Mat Kendrick's big match verdict
GERARD Houllier joked that a positive result at Chelsea would be like winning the World Cup in terms of halting the feel-bad factor at Villa.
Well, ultimately, it was more like being on top of the world, at the end of the world and finally, breath-takingly, back in the real world all in the space of 90 or so minutes during an epic encounter at Stamford Bridge.
Villa haven’t won the World Cup, they haven’t even beaten Carlo Ancelotti’s fading force, so there’s no need to dig out the bunting and cordon off the streets of Witton for a knees-up any time soon.
But hopefully, for the time being at least, they’ve won Houllier a little patience, beaten off the boo-boys and weakened the counter-productive culture threatening to engulf Villa in recent weeks.
Remarkably, despite dragging themselves off the floor to find the unlikeliest of last-gasp equalisers from a makeshift rookie left-back in the inside-right area – arise young Ciaran Clark – this was two points dropped.
However, considering the strained circumstances in which Villa entered this testing fixture... Considering Villa went into it with one win, one draw, five goals scored and 22 conceded from their previous nine away trips...
Considering Villa were – and are – within touching distance of the drop zone with critics calling for Houllier’s head... Considering the manager was supposedly facing a players revolt...
Considering Villa had failed to take a single point from every other match in which they conceded the opener...
Well, considering all that, it felt like a win, a victory, a triumph for Houllier’s ability to keep his head while all around were losing theirs. Villa should be allowed to savour the unrestrained respite yesterday affords them – until Wednesday night.
Let Randy Lerner and Paul Faulkner’s joyous celebration of Clark’s point-saving header be a defining image before their hard work of striving to bolster this squad begins in earnest today.
Villa are still in the thick of a relegation dogfight, competing to be the least worst in the West Midlands rather than the best of the rest in the country.
Sunderland at Villa Park in two days’ time and trips to relegation rivals Blues and Wigan, plus a visit from title-chasing Manchester City, stand in Villa’s way before the first month of 2011 is out.
