Continuing their excellent home form, Chelsea managed to scrape through resilient Aston Villa in their second match of the season to beat them 2-1. Chelsea had to fight really hard to secure three points against Aston Villa, who had surprised the pundits by beating Arsenal at Emirates by 3-1 in their last match. Jose Mourinho managed to get back on winning terms against Aston Villa with a previous record of no wins in the last 4 matches. Although Chelsea had registered a massive victory of 8-0 against this opposition in the last season, it was not smooth sailing this time around with a much more confident Aston Villa side.
Chelsea came out with the same formation (4-2-3-1) as the last match but introduced Juan Mata and Demba Ba in the first match of their seasons. Branislav Ivanovic, John Terry, Gary Cahill, Ashley Cole in defence; Ramires and Frank Lampard as holding midfielders; Oscar, Juan Mata and Eden Hazard as attacking midfielders and Demba Ba as a striker upfront.
Chelsea got on to the score sheet with a very early attempt by Eden Hazard that was parried into the goal by Aston Villa's keeper Antonio Luna, which was then determined as an own goal. Both the sides constantly knocked at each others doors but could not succeed in scoring the second goal of the match. Christian Benteke gave Aston Villa an equalizer in the dying minutes of the first half to finish the half with a tied score of 1-1. Second half of the match saw introduction of Romelu Lukaku and Andre Schurrle to the team by replacing Demba Ba and Juan Mata. 17 minutes from regulation time, Chelsea took the crucial lead with Braninslav Ivanovic's header that came off Frank Lampard's free kick. Aston Villa created chances for potentially equalizing the score but could not capitalize on their chances. Chelsea finally managed to fend off Aston Villa's constant pressure to end the match with a final score of 2-1.
Jose Mourinho appreciated Villa's efforts in the post-match conference by stating that a draw would also have been a fair reflection of the game. On the other side, Villa's manager Paul Lambert was proud of his team for putting up a fight against Chelsea and also applauded Petr Cech's goal-keeping prowess that kept Chelsea in the game.
Chelsea will now face Manchester United in their next match away from home, which supposedly is pitted as one of the crucial matches of the season. With Sir Alex Ferguson's exit last season , it would be interesting to see how David Moyes motivates his team to face Chelsea at their home to keep them at par with the contenders of the title. Chelsea will travel to Old Trafford to face Manchester United on 26th August 2013. Last season, this fixture saw one of the most poorly officiated matches of recent times, fans will hope that this time around it is the players who will get a chance to write the script of the game and not the referees.
Article References:
1. http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb/matchday/matches/2013-2014/epl.html/chelsea-vs-aston-villa
2. http://www.chelseafc.com/news-article/article/3420871/title/match-report-chelsea-2-aston-villa-1
3. http://www.chelseafc.com/news-article/article/3420946/title/cech-very-difficult-win
Image References:
1. http://www.voltbet.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/chesvil.png
2. http://www.chelseafc.com/news-article/article/3420871/title/match-report-chelsea-2-aston-villa-1
3. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2399171/Chelsea-2-Aston-Villa-1--match-report-Thumping-Branislav-Ivanovic-header-rescues-Blues-Jose-Mourinho-Paul-Lambert-square-touchline.html
