Quite why five thousand people couldn't be bothered to turn up to see Aston Villa beat Chelsea defies belief. Perhaps they were still smarting at the fact that Martin O'Neill failed to bring in Robinho, Cannavaro and Kaka during the summer window. What they missed was a treat. A real treat.

On one level, this match was all about duels; Martin Laursen or Zat Knight, against Didier Drogba; Nigel Reo-Coker against Michael Essien; John Carew against John Terry. And although the stats will show that Chelsea had a lot of the ball, to a very large extent they had it in harmless areas. Why? Because Reo-Coker harried and pushed Essien backwards at every opportunity; because Carew's pace and power was such a headache for Terry that the England skipper spent 90 minutes pushing and pulling the big guy and grumbling to referee Mark Clattenburg. Because Drogba, before Villa finally put paid to him, spent most of the game on his backside reeling.

It's some ask for a young team, much of it newly assembled, to go out and win duels of this magnitude. But they did. And despite the predictably ungracious words of Jose Mourinho afterwards, they deserve immense credit for what they achieved. And they deserved to win, Jose, sorry.

'If you're tempted to buy the dross rolled out once again by Mourinho that this was a patched-up side, you need to think again'


On another level, the game was about tactics. Having failed in his attempts to sign a specialist right back, Mourinho must have been licking his lips at the thought of Malouda and Ashley Cole attacking the out-of-position Mellberg.

But O'Neill's decision to partner Carew with Luke Moore up front, and to use Gabby Agbonlahor's pace wide right to deter Ashley Cole from getting forward, was a tactical masterstroke.

Without Cole for support, Malouda was, quite frankly, useless - and with Reo-Coker and Gareth Barry successfully stopping the ball getting beyond Essien and Jon Obi Mikel, Chelsea only ever really became a threat at corners.

Why I liked this performance so much was that it went beyond grit, determination and hard work. My favourite cynics and knockers, probably the 5,000 who never pitched up, would probably try to contend that Chelsea dominated possession; that Villa huffed and puffed and ran and tackled and ultimately got lucky with a couple of goals while Chelsea fluffed a host of chances.

If you're tempted to think like that, picture Scott Carson with his hands in his pockets for 90 minutes. Picture Drogba and Terry on their arses complaining. Picture Ashley Young running at Juliano Belletti and giving the poor sod the afternoon from hell.

Picture Barry finding time and space to repeatedly pick out Young and Gabby behind Chelsea's full backs. And picture, too, a Villa side who, at one-nil up, held their nerve and went for the jugular when they smelled blood. That's the real story.

Furthermore, if you're tempted to buy the dross rolled out once again by Mourinho that this was a patched-up side, you need to think again. Petr Cech, Terry, Ashley Cole, Claude Makelele, Essien, Malouda, Joe Cole, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Drogba all played. So that puts paid to that argument, then. Or does he in fact mean that Frank Lampard was missing? Poor sausage.

No, this was a match in which O'Neill was at his best tactically. The entire side were at their best and sharpest physically and mentally. And the Villa Park faithful were on the best form I've heard for ages.

So stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

The Doc's ratings:
Carson 7; Mellberg 8, Knight 8, Laursen 9, Bouma 8; Agbonlahor 8, REO-COKER 9, Barry 8, Young 9; Carew 8, Moore 8.

Man-of the-Match: Reo-Coker. A nightmare to pick a MOM in a game where all Villa's players played well, and my scores reflect that. Laursen, Young and Reo-Coker all gave immense performances, but NRC shades it for me because I think stopping Essien was so critical.