The Doc's Diagnosis: Villa vs Chelsea

On the way home from Villa Park last night, I heard a Chelsea fan phone Ray Stubbs on Five Live and tell him, in all seriousness, that "Chelsea just aren't breaking these teams down". Although I was sure the troublesome roadworks on the northbound M6 were finished, this fellow must have got to his seat some time during the interval.

The truth is, Chelsea were able to break Villa down more-or-less at will in the first 45 minutes, carving out chance after chance. What will worry Mourinho and Clarke is the dire finishing of their forwards in what was essentially a shooting alley of a first half: that Kiraly never had to break sweat says everything about Chelsea's striking and very little about Villa's defending.

From one problem to another for Jose (though he conceals it well): unable to keep a clean sheet several games on the run - fix that, and your strikers couldn't hit a barn door with a banjo.

Don't for one moment get the impression that this will be a negative diagnosis. Villa worked hard, tackled ferociously, denied Chelsea width and showed a determination that - unlike the performance against a superior Manchester United - only grew with the ninety minutes.

Yes, Villa were nervous going forward - and rightly so: on the few occasions Petrov and Davis got forward and lost the ball, McCann and Gardner were sorely stretched by Essien, Makelele and Lampard. Yes, Villa's passing was sometimes telegraphed and often woeful, epitomised by Steven Davis, who played busily, aggressively and with more ambition than his midfield teammates, but who couldn't match his purpose with execution, surrendering the ball tamely time after time and ultimately paying the price with substitution. But for all that, this performance was a triumph of resolute determination, hard work, strength and aggression.

There will be those lifetime sceptics who think Chelsea should have been three up at half time, and that Villa got eleven men behind the ball and played a dull, negative game in the second. That would be a myopic and one-dimensional view of this performance.

Those same scpetics would barely have given Villa a chance before the game. Over a half time pint they would have been discussing how long Villa might resist. I am sure they would have been seriously disappointed: the wide open spaces Chelsea were afforded in the first half were closed up in the second.

Villa played with greater ambition the longer the second half went on, and gave Chelsea a nervous last fifteen minutes with Ridgewell going oh-so-close from a Bouma corner and Baros, for once, looking incisive and threatening.

Where a young team lost its coherence, confidence and concentration in holding United, those qualities shone out ever stronger the longer the second half went on against Chelsea, and just might have sneaked it. I think a lot of the reviewers have got this wrong: if you look beyond the score, this really was the classic "game of two halves".

There were some barnstorming individual performances which were all the more exceptional for being surprising. Kiraly never put a foot wrong, commanding his box boldly when needed and punching clear confidently. Ridgewell, curiously out of favour in recent weeks, was excellent in the second half, and rose admirably to the task of containing, in Drogba, probably the world's best centre forward at the moment.

Angel, notwithstanding a ten minute period in the second half when he seemed to be wearing roller-blades, was strong in the air, and held the ball and laid it off well. McCann fought and tackled as we have come to expect this season, but looked fitter and more mobile with it.

Captain for the night Mellberg embarrassed Aaron Hughes with another strong display at right back, even if he didn't fancy taking on Ashley Cole. But the plaudits have to be saved for Freddie Bouma: I don't always agree with the sponsors' verdict on the man-of-the-match, but last night was an exception.

Bouma looked up for it even in the warm up, and gave his best ever display in claret and blue. Solid, aggressive, purposeful, skillful - his moment of victory came when Mourinho gave up and finally hauled Wright-Phillips off. And Geremi did no better, either.

It isn't difficult and it isn't clever to look at Villa's negatives at the moment. The side is playing a narrow, aggressive, spoiling game and looking unambitious, incapable and unincisive going forward. New signing Petrov doesn't seem to want the ball and looks a luxury right now.

But then, we all knew that MON has a massive job to do and that we wouldn't become the Premiership's most dynamic attacking force overnight. Flair and attacking penetration will ultimately come through the transfer market.

Any great manager makes a struggling team hard to beat before making it a team hard to stop. That journey has begun, and a point against the Premiership champions, won with rugged determination, sheer competitiveness and total concentration, is a good marker of the progress we've made under O'Neill.

Kiraly 7; Mellberg 7; Cahill 6; Ridgewell 7; BOUMA 8; Davis 6 (Sub Baros 7); McCann 7; Gardner 6 (Sub Osbourne 7); Petrov 5; Agbonlahor 6; Angel 7

Man of the Match: Wilfred Bouma