Ratings & Reactions Villa 0-0 Chelsea

[Hanky]

Good result and performance. Thought the whole team put in some great effort.

[Dodgyknees]

Oh yes, as NV said in the match thread, the Fonz won more bloody headers than Carew today. It was a real shame watching him win the headers and virtually never was there anyone there to latch on to it.

Noticed this too, think maybe Delfouneso HAS to step up now because with agbonlahors injury, Carew looking like a little boy lost and Heskey possibly not being available for all games, we need somebody else to push for the team up front.

[JuanCrablo]

Too many chances missed against a side like Chelsea though, good to see us creating chances through good play and hard work.

Ireland's chance was the best, the angle he came from, the way it sat up, seemed perfect.

Reo-Coker's chance wasn't too far behind, sort of like Ireland, did everything right but just off target.

Carew's effort was decent but needed far more pace while Clark's header was simply unlucky.

Overall ratings:

Friedel - 7 - Not much to do really, what he did do, he did it well.

Beye - 7 - Solid enough.

Warnock - 8.5 - probably his best game for a long while.

Collins - 8 - was a rock

Clark - 7.5 - Again like Collins, very solid, 1/2 times caught out a little but generally very good.

Downing - 9 - With the ball and without the ball, he was first class and proved me being correct when saying he should be on A.Cole's side!!

Young - 6.5 - Good shift, lacked quality.

Petrov - 8 - Read the game well, perfect for him. Just a good all round performance.

Reo-Coker - 7.5 - Got around well as usual, unlucky at the end after good work.

Ireland - 7 - Glimses of what he can do but not in the game enough, although playing with a target man who can't hold a ball up and being dominated doesn't help.

Carew - 6 - Lazy, second to every ball. Few okay touches. 6 is possibly generous.

These rating look pretty spot on to me, maybe drop Petrov down to a 7.5. Both him NRC put in good shifts, but Warnock and especially Dowing stand out players

[R.I.C.O.]

Wasn't expecting anything from this game as Chelsea will walk the league this year, but with a few of their top players out I knew we had a chance. Everyone put in a very good shift and tried hard. The only disappointment was Carew who is half the player he was when he joined in 2007.

Friedel - 7 - still solid between those posts.

Warnock - 7 - made a couple of mistakes but otherwise solid.

Beye - 6 - tried hard to contain Malouda but was pulled out of position on many occasions. Didn't get forward much either.

Collins - 7 - strong, solid and fiercesome. Seems to relish the big games.

Dunne - N/A - not on long enough.

Downing - 8 - MOTM - having a great start to the season, and getting stuck in too. His range of passing will see us well this season.

A.Young - 7 - always looking to take on his man which is good, his crossing has improved and he seems to be getting into a bit of form.

Petrov - 6 - another game where the play passed him by, he also seems to be lacking physical presense and losing the ball a lot more these days.

Reo-Coker - 6 - a workmanlike performance.If only he'd put that chance away.

Ireland - 7 - seems to be starting to resemble the attacking midfielder we've needed, he also gets stuck in a lot too and is quite a tricky player. could turn out to be an asset this season.

Carew - 5 - time is surely running out for Big John. He just looks half the player he was and he brings nothing to the team.

Subs

Clark - 7 - Put in a very good performance and is one hell of an asset, he's very cool under pressure but also does not resort to hoofball and prefers to play an intelligent game.

Delfouneso / Sidwell - didn't really get into the game, by then we were holding on.

[dudevillaisnice]

was today warnocks chance from houllier? He hasnt played before has he under GH?

[theunderstudy]

We are the first side to keep Chelsea out in a 0-0 draw in 2010

[AVFC-Prideofbrum]

was today warnocks chance from houllier? He hasnt played before has he under GH?

You're right.

Apart from Tottenham, Wolves and Blackburn which is every Houllier game, he hasn't played on him.

Good stat.

[Oaks]

A very good result, but i was more impressed with our basic football, even though we did our usual tiring in the second half. Collins was a man mountain, Downing worked hard going forward and back.

Friedel - 7. Didn't really have to pull off a great save, but did what he had to do well.

Beye - 7. Probably his best game. Made one mistake in the second half that almost cost us.

Collins - MOTM 9. Superb.

Dunne - 5. Made one good challenge and one poor bit of defending. Im still a little worried with his form.

Warnock - 8. Have been one of his biggest knockers in the last 5 or 6 months, he was back to his best today.

Downing - 8.5. Has been great this season.

Petrov - 7. Put a shift, tired as usual in the second.

NRC - 7.5. Put a shift in, i like his energy just what weve needed for a while.

Young - 7. Usual stuff from Young. Good in parts and puts in 100%.

Ireland - 7. Showed what he can offer in his favoured roll. Yeah he wasnt in the game much at times, but he will get more of the ball against poorer teams, which is well everyone.

Carew - 5. The weak link, especially in the second half. Was well pissed off when Terry bounced off him and got a free kick.

Clark - 7.5. Was a great performance from the young lad.

Houlier - 8. Right team, great point.

Was very happy with the result having Gabby, Heskey, Albrighton, L.Young and Dunne missing. I notice the commentators didn't mention this much although mentioned the missing players Chelsea had on many occasions. Chris Waddle was a clearing in the woods so was the **** ref.

[kurtsimonw]

Was there a reason Clark was picked to come on over Cuellar? Clark did well but it seemed very harsh on Cuellar.

Not sure, maybe he just wants to give everyone some game time? He did start Cuellar against Wolves when Dunne was out.

Friedel - 7 - Not much to do, but did what he had to do without any trouble.

Beye - 7.5 - Think he got trned by Anelka a few times in the first half and most their attacks came from this side but he did do a good job overall.

Collins - 8 - Some great inch-perfect tackles to break up good chances for Chelsea, mans a beast.

Clark - 8 - Yet another good game, never really seemed to get caught out or beaten by Anelka.

Warnock - 9 - Made that 1foul, other than that I can't actually recall them managing to so much as put a cross in against Warnock? MotM for me.

Downing - 8.5 - Good going forward, even better helping out at the back. Chelsea had some joy down our right, but he did keep Cole fairly quite.

Reo-Coker - 7.5 - Put in a great shift, won the ball back countless times. If only he put that chance away..

Petrov - 7.5 - Really put himself about today against a very tough midfield, same as NRC really.

Young - 7 - Hot and cold for the most part.

Ireland - 7.5 - Should have scored, definitely helps us with creating chances, really impressed me.

Carew - 6 - Disappointing. It's never going to be easy against Ivanovic and Terry, but he looked like he thought he couldn't win the battle so didn't bother.

Thought ref was shit, again. Not one-sided, just shit. How on Earth that young Chelsea lad got booked I'll never know, one of the most bizzare decisions I've seen.

Very good performance overall, defensively we look superb, our closing down, work rate and positioning kept Chelsea to very few good chances. Get Albrighton, Heskey and Gabby back and hopefully we'll create even more and start puting some away.

[JulieB]

The Fonz to me seemed to get better the longer he was on the pitch...he grew in confidence. If NRC had seen his run & passed it back to the middle instead of trying chip the keeper & score (As if!) Fonz would have buried it i'm sure.

No complaints with NRC he harried Essien & co ALL game, broke the play up superbly & showed immense stamina to even go for that one on one at the end. He loses the ball sometimes but he works his sock off.

[Pelle]

Good team effort today. Didn't let any goals in and created some good chances ourselves. Shame that NRC couldn't put that last one away, but he did good to create the chance. I thought everyone were good today, except for one. It's pretty sad to see Carew be this bad. His legs are gone. I'd want him to leave soon now so we can remember him for all the good things he used to do.

Put Clark as motm. Probably wasn't, but I like what I see from him. I think he deserved it. Though, Downing was probably better. One of his best games for us.

And I think Ireland showed that he can be a really good asset to our team. If he can be more consistant and do all the good things he did today, he'll be great. Well, apart from that miss after a couple of minutes.

Happy with the result. Could've been better, could've been worse.

[kurtsimonw]

The Fonz to me seemed to get better the longer he was on the pitch...he grew in confidence. If NRC had seen his run & passed it back to the middle instead of trying chip the keeper & score (As if!) Fonz would have buried it i'm sure.

Don't think he could make the pass. I was screaming for NRC togive it to the Fonz, but for some reason he seemed to stopp his run when he thought NRC was in, no idea why.

[villianusa]

Surpised with the some of the comments on Ireland; he did okay time but didn't see enough of him in the game. I do believe with more games under his belt he will do very well.

[rhyscartwright_avfc]

Would have taken a draw before so will be happy with a draw now. Both teams had chances but I feel we should have won. Everyone did well but special mentions go to Stewart Downing and Petrov until he was knackered. Thought Petrov should have gone off instead of Ireland. 3 points off 2nd place, not bad. One more thing, tell NRC never to go past the halfway line, great player otherwise.

[Mantis]

Happy with both the performance and the result. We were passing it around a bit and playing some good stuff and besides that Chelsea spell in the second half we weren't exactly inviting pressure on for the entire game either. With Heskey or Gabby fit we could've nicked that.

[mcfc]

good reslut for villa this evening thought they may nick it in the 2nd half thought they were the better team

[JulieB]

The Fonz to me seemed to get better the longer he was on the pitch...he grew in confidence. If NRC had seen his run & passed it back to the middle instead of trying chip the keeper & score (As if!) Fonz would have buried it i'm sure.

Don't think he could make the pass. I was screaming for NRC togive it to the Fonz, but for some reason he seemed to stopp his run when he thought NRC was in, no idea why.

I only saw it on ESPN so I'll bow to another angle or if you were at the game but certainly it looked like the pass was on for a few seconds.

[CarewsEyebrowDesigner]

Good result. Downing MOTM.

[Mantis]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A75662508

Oh God, such bitterness.

[villa4europe]

boring negative pointless football but created more and better chances than they did? haha **** em

good game IMO nice to see us hit it really hard in the 1st 10-15 mins, i think collymore was right on the way home, if irelands chance happened well into the game he puts it away, but with that chance, cechs great save from carew, hitting the post then the NRC chance (which again id put down to good goal keeping) as well as one hell of a block from ivanovic when ireland smashed one, we played well unsurprisingly tired ireland especially, was good to see how often we were willing to across the back 4 for the sake of keeping the ball rather than just launching it