Another 8 goal thriller anyone?

By: Martini Extra Dry | October 5th, 2008

Last time Villa played Chelsea at Stamford Bridge was on Boxing Day of last year and very few will have forgotten the game. Most Villa fans went into the game begrudglingly expecting a 2-0 defeat at the fortress that is Chelsea’s home ground… how wrong we were!! Eight goals and three red cards were the exciting outcome on a fantastic day for spectators.

On that cold December day, it was Villa who got out the blocks first and hit Chelsea with wave after wave of attacks in the first fifteen minutes and the fruits of their labour came when Agbon, Carew and Maloney linked up brilliantly to give Villa a 1-0 lead. This woke Chelsea up and the game became more end to end, with both teams looking like they had more goals in them. Little did they know there was still seven more to come!

Just before half time Maloney doubled his tally and Villa’s lead with a fantastic solo effort that Cech spilled but Villa’s first half party was spoiled when Zat Knight clumsily brought down Michael Ballack (who’d come on for Frank Lampard half way through the half), earning himself a red card and Chelsea a penalty. Shevchenko slotted home the penalty deeeeeeeep into stoppage time of the first half.

Into the second half and Shevchenko showed none of the uselessness that dogged most of his Chelsea career, hitting a superb long range shot that dipped just under the bar, giving Carson no chance. Villa were then gutted as they went down 3-2 after having lead by two goals. This time that man Shevchenko became the creator, feeding a lovely ball to Alex to carve our defence open and the Brazilian slotted home.

But still Villa weren’t giving up and an Ashley Young free-kick into the box was volleyed in by Martin Laursen. It was a goal that the greatest of strikers would’ve been proud of and it brought the game level at 3-3. Seven minutes later the numbers were levelled up too as Carvalho saw red for a two footed tackle on Gabby.

With just four minutes to go you usually see fans begin to leave the stadium but no-one did on this day, expecting to see yet more action and they weren’t let down. There was still two more goals and another red card to come.

Just two minutes remained on the clock when Michael Ballack hit a clinical free kick right into the corner of the net. But Villa got a lifeline in injury time when Ashley Cole was judged to have handled on the line (though I’m not actually convinced it hit his arm) to get him a red card and us a penalty. With the weight of the world on his shoulders, Gareth Barry refused to cave under the pressure and hammered a superb penaty into the goal to finish off the thriller of all thrillers. Stephen King eat your heart out.

Fancy reliving it? Here’s a video of it I found on Megavideo.com

Will we get all that excitement again today? Only time can tell you that. Even Mystic Meg and Russell Grant won’t be daring enough to claim to know the outcome of this one beforehand. But wtf, let’s predict anyway! I’m going for a 3-2 Villa win and for Man City to hold Liverpool to a 1-1 draw, taking us top of the Premiership and onto Cloud Nine! Anyone else fancy venturing a guess? Comment away. Let’s see if you are as much of a dreamer as me!

For those statistics lovers;
- it’s been 85 home games unbeaten for Chelsea, making it four and a half years since they last lost at The Bridge.
- Villa are unbeaten in the last five meetings with Chelsea, including the 4-4 draw and a 2-0 home win last season.
- Villa have won their last three Premiership games and not lost in four.
- Chelsea are, alongside Liverpool, the only unbeaten teams this season, in fact Chelsea haven’t lost a Premiership game in 27 games.
- Chelsea are possibly missing the following: Essien, Drogba, Deco, Carvalho, Terry, Ashley Cole, Joe Cole and Alex.
- Villa are just missing Wilfred Bouma, having named the same starting line-up for EVERY league game so far this season.