CHELSEA    V    ASTON VILLA  

DATE

KICK OFF

3pm

Saturday 21st August 1999

AT

Stamford Bridge

FA Carling Premiership

FIXTURE

ATTENDENCE

SCORE

MAN OF THE MATCH

1-0

Marcel Desailly

35,071

SCORERS

CHELSEA

Ehiogu (o.g) 52

REFEREE

Neale Barry (Scunthorpe)

REFS PERFORMANCE

3/10

ASSISTANT REFEREES

M.North

K.Hawkes

TEAMS

CHELSEA

ED De Goey, Albert Ferrer, Frank Leboeuf, Marcel Desailly, Celestine Babayaro, Dan Petrescu, Dennis Wise, Jody Morris, Gustavo Poyet, Chris Sutton, Gianfranco Zola

SUBSTITUTES
Flo (Sutton) Goldbaek (Petrescu) Ambrosetti (Zola)

BOOKED
Poyet, Sutton, Leboeuf

ASTON VILLA

James, Ehiogu, Southgate, Calderwood, Draper, Delaney, Hendrie, Taylor, Thompson, Wright, Dublin, Joachim

SUBSTITUTES
Merson (Thompson) Stone (Draper)

BOOKED
Taylor, Hendrie, Thompson

MATCH REPORT

This was the type of game that we would have drawn a few seasons ago, but with Chelsea's now solid defence we are looking every bit Championship contenders.

Marcel Desailly was in inspirational form as was Gianfranco Zola.

Villa came to the Bridge to quite simply not lose, and there tactics were simply to nulify our midfield, which in fairness they managed to do in the first half.

Petrescu should of scored when put clear through by a inch perfect Zola pass, and Dan tried to lob the ball over goalkeeper James only to see the ball land on top of the net.

We continued to apply a lot of pressure, but with all our possestion we were unable to breech their well organised defence.

Referee Barry had a terrible game, producing yellow cards to players from both teams for tackles which never warranted cautions.

Why we were not given a penalty when Zola was brought down in the box by a lunging tackle from Ehiogu I will never know, and even Villa manager John Gregory described the incident as "a definate penalty".

With a few half chances taken from distance, Villa managed to contain our relentless raids forward.

After the break Chelsea were firing on all cylinders and the breakthrough came when Petrescu got onto a chip from Zola on the right side of the goal and hit a first time shot across the face of the goal with a rushing Chris Sutton running in to get a foot to it, however the ball seemed to take a deflection of Ehiogu and straight into the net, giving Chelsea another own goal in a space of a week, and leaving James cursing his luck.

Apart from a header from Ehiogu which looked a certain goal, Ed was having a easy afternoon.

Chelsea continued to try and get the all important 2nd goal and Chris Sutton went very close with a overhead kick from 5 yrds.

Sutton although not finding his scoring boots yet played a important part in holding the ball up, and won quite a few headers during the game, and it definetly looks like the Zola/Sutton partnership is begginning to gel.

The weather was very warm and players were begining to tire so Vialli wisely brought on subs Goldbaek and Flo for Petrescu and Sutton to add some fresh legs to the match.

Chelsea kept very solid at the back and it was becoming increasingly likely that Chelsea were going to settle for the 1 goal.

With 3 minutes to go Zola  was replaced by Ambrosetti to make his debut, and he showed his real pace instantly and I'm sure he is going to be a huge success at Chelsea.

When the ref finally called proceedings to a end, we all felt relieved but never once did I think that Villa were going to equalise.

Another 3 points in the bag, unbeaten, and 4th in the League, we could not of made a better start.

Next stop!
Skonto Riga and Into the Champions League