Aston Villa 2 Chelsea 1 - defence and Ancelotti give cause for concern

Another away match, another defeat. Overall, in losing to a good Aston Villa side, Chelsea didn’t actually put in a bad performance. But errors both in defence and attack, and a worrying lack of leadership from Ancelotti, were enough to get me concerned.

Even in deserved defeat, there were some positives. It might have been a tad lucky, but Drogba scored again to maintain an excellent goals to games ratio. It’s also worth pointing out that, coming on the fifteenth minute, the Ivorian’s goal was the earliest Chelsea have scored so far this season. At times on Saturday Chelsea played some nice football. Some slick passing from Deco and Lampard created two or three excellent chances to score. Overall, Chelsea had more shots on goal than the home side and dominated possession.

Unfortunately however, there really is only one stat that matters in football matches – goals scored and conceded – and Villa were ruthless in their exploitation of Chelsea’s weaknesses on the day. Indeed, had poor fortune struck Ancelotti’s side the losing margin could have been even greater, as Villa created more chances on the break.

Ancelotti has some work to do over the next couple of weeks on the training ground to urgently correct what appears to be an uncharacteristic weakness in defence. At times last season the same frailty from corners and crosses reared its head, but was quickly quashed once Hiddink took over. Now history seems to be repeating itself.

There have been suggestions that Carvalho is the weak link, and that replacing him with Alex when fit might resolve the problem. On Sky Sports commentary, Andy Gray suggested something similar – and that the Portuguese was too weak. I’m not in that school of thought: a central defensive pairing should be about a blend of talents and, on form, Carvalho offers the best possible foil for John Terry.

Conceding two goals from corners on Saturday was about poor discipline and concentration. What else could have got John Terry so riled? One would hope that, with world class defenders in the team, extra work on the training ground will go some way to solving the problem. Anelka and Deco both missed excellent chances to level the score, and I suspect that such profligacy might be harder to correct. As I pointed out earlier in the season, if Chelsea are to be successful this year, one or two players need to start chipping in with more goals. Drogba’s current form is outstanding, but can’t be relied on to win the league on its own.

But this was one defeat – not a disaster, especially bearing in mind Liverpool’s equally unfortunate and hilarious loss at Sunderland. In light of that, the most worrying aspect of the defeat at Villa isn’t the players’ performances at all, but the manager’s, which could have longer-term meaning.

As during the Hull game earlier in the season, I was at first startled and then livid at Ancelotti’s refusal to take positive action to change the game on Saturday. Chelsea fell behind Villa in the 51^st minute, and it wasn’t until the 83^rd that he made an attacking substitution. This represented an infuriating lack of leadership: essentially he was trusting to hope alone to get a result.

A loss is worth nothing – why not push for a goal? When Bosingwa got injured, why not take 60 seconds to consider whether there was a better option rather than the obvious straight swap for Ivanovic? Bringing on Cole and switching Essien to right back could have helped take advantage of a Villa side that would be on the back foot for half an hour, for example. What was giving Joe Cole – a player just coming back from injury – five minutes to try and turn a football match around going to do but undermine the player’s confidence?

We were spoilt with Mourinho. Whilst Jose may not have always got his starting XI right, he never failed to take action to change games that were ebbing away. Fans understood what he was doing, and players were able to respond to the ‘let’s win this’ message that his positive substitutions would send when they were a goal down. As it was, Ancelotti sent no message at all, and the game ebbed away rather than heated up with ten minutes to go. I suspect that I’ll get some flack for my criticism of Ancelotti from forummers, and perhaps other bloggers like thechelseablog.org and chelseadaft, but in my view if we’re happy to criticise our defence’s performance on Saturday, then we shouldn’t shy from criticising the manager’s, either.

All that said, Ancelotti must have had his reasons. This was just one game and next time that we’re a goal down he’ll – hopefully – do something different. We are far from a crisis, and the season thus far sits firmly in ‘going well’ territory – but Ancelotti has work to do to make sure it stays there.

What O’Neill said

“They’re (Chelsea) really good. I think they’re so strong and I don’t think they ever get the credit for being brilliant.”

What the papers said

The Times
“By the end of this fulminating spectacle it was Chelsea, if recent history is anything to go by, whose title hopes were grounded. His (Ancelotti’s) Chelsea, just like Luiz Felipe Scolari’s Chelsea last year, have a flaw that will surely prove fatal to their ambitions unless it is promptly addressed.”

Telegraph
“Chelsea are far from a crisis even if their second Premier League defeat of the season, the second in a row away from home, means they have ceded the leadership of the table. And Chelsea have never won the title after losing two of their first nine games. Ancelotti has the players, he has their support, he has the tactics, the structure and the temperament. But who can defend him when his team can’t defend?”

Guardian
“A second consecutive away defeat on the domestic front is a feeble sort of crisis since the new leaders Manchester United are merely a point clear of Chelsea. In contrast to the 3-1 loss at Wigan, Ancelotti's side produced some excellent football.”

Comments

[George Christopoulos]

Have faith to Carlo Ancelotti.He is born winner. This will be the greatest season for Chelsea.

[syd_master]

i agree with you bridgeview..100%...
like you...i wondering when carlo want make a sub to change the flow of game that will give us advantages against villa....

if special one was there....no doubt he will make the sub early than last 10 minute like what carlo did....

[Michael Hepp]

I think we have lost at Aston Villa for the past 3 years. I can't remember for sure but I know that we do not have the best record there. It is always a bogey ground for us.

That being said, defensively there are certainly causes for concern. Too many times this season it seems someone is running around unmarked and we give up goals we shouldn't. It drives me crazy.

I also think that possibly the players and Ancelotti where looking forward to this weeks CL game and this was game that was overlooked after the big Liverpool game and the CL upcoming. Classically teams will overlook games like this one when it is sandwiched between big games like this. It is not an excuse, but rather an observation.

[boris]

you've hit the nail on the head, i agree with everything you've said but i have been critised for this thinking on other sites, one of the substitutions as you said was a straifg swap so really meant nothing, bringing on joey was too little too late, some one made a point on another site "how can we practise set pieces when we have no one who can beat the 1st defender