Aston Villa 2-1 Chelsea | Out-set-pieced . . .

Disappointed? Yes. Surprised? No. My predictions didn’t go well, but there was one thing where I was spot on. I knew that we were going to concede in set pieces. We managed that twice. Two very poorly defended set pieces have undermined an otherwise good performance for a post-international-break match at Villa Park.

I wouldn’t say we looked tired but certainly Villa looked more fresh and determined.

If you exclude those set pieces aside, this was a match that Chelsea dominated—be it in possession or in terms of chances created, shots on goal etc. But that’s not to take anything away from Aston Villa. They dominated where it mattered—the goals scored column.

Let this not go down an a poor performance from Chelsea or something. We played really well. We had the creativity and improvisation, we were great to watch and we created loads of chances. If only we had defended better...

With some extra effort, Michael Essien could have prevented both the goals. For the first goal, Carvalho was at fault but Essien could have stopped the goal. For the second goal, it was clearly Essien who was simply watching the ball without making an attempt of any sort to stop the goal.

He wasn’t shoving or body checking or even jumping. He just failed to mark his man. That was pretty sad to see. There was something common about Essien’s performance and that of Chelsea. Essien had a good match otherwise but just lost it during these set pieces.

Earlier, Drogba score a very smart long range goal. For the casual eyes, it might look like a lucky strike. If you’ve been following Drogba since the pre-season friendlies, you’d realise that this is something he has added to his repertoire. The shot is not about luck, it’s about surprising the goalie and doing that with perfection. He’s done that now a few times this season. Very good goal.

From a league table point of view, it’s a bad weekend as Man Utd and Arsenal win their matches. Liverpool lost to Sunderland, but their results shouldn’t matter anymore. We’ve knocked them out of the Premier League as early as October this time. How Rafael Benitez is still holding on to his job is beyond me.

Except for a lucky champions league win and an even more lucky FA Cup win, he’s got nothing to show. From a Chelsea perspective, I wish he stays for another decade in charge of Liverpool.

Sometimes, I realise that this blog really helps me in reacting to such defeats. When the match was over, I was very gutted but as I started writing this blog, I’m feeling lighter. It’s one of those matches where we did well but committed two mistakes and were punished.

It’s a long season but we have a bunch of tough away fixtures to come. Excellent performance in the next eight weeks could put us all alone at the top while the rest can fight for the spoils. I think we’ll come back like this match never happened and lead the table again soon. Cheer up!