Chapter 46
On September 2, 2007, Chelsea will face Aston Villa away.
The Aston Villa team is located in Birmingham, and is a city rival of Birmingham City.
Since the establishment of the Premier League, although Aston Villa's performance has not been very stable, it is also one of the stronger teams besides Manchester United and other four championship contenders... Well, to put it simply, Aston Villa belongs to the second tier of the Premier League. It is the kind of team that is not in danger of relegation. When it meets a team in the third tier, it will win. When it meets a team in the same tier, it will win a few games, lose a few games, and draw a few games.
When they meet a first-tier team, they naturally cannot just lie down and wait for the opponent to score a goal. They will definitely struggle, but the extent of this struggle generally does not depend on themselves, but on the opponent team.
For a team like Chelsea, which changed its tactical formation after the start of the season and played extremely chaotically in recent games, and only avoided losing because of the two goalkeepers in the backcourt - Aston Villa feels they can hold on.
Moreover, it was not just Aston Villa who thought so. Before the game started, all the outside media speculated that Aston Villa would be the winning team.
The main reason is naturally that under the leadership of head coach Martin Onio, Aston Villa has achieved good league results since the new season and the players are in very good condition. The only person on the team who couldn't play was goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen, who was unable to play due to a leg injury. However, the backup goalkeeper Scott Carson, who was on loan this season, also performed quite well.
Although Chelsea's record in the new season is still good, the defense has been useless since last season, and now the midfield and front court are in a mess and have no rules at all. In addition, Duff joined Real Madrid, and two high-paid players in the team were officially announced that they could not continue to play...
Yes, that's right, Ballack's ankle and Shevchenko's back injuries have relapsed and they need to rest for a while.
Carvalho and Bridge, two defensive players, were unable to play due to a calf injury and a hip injury respectively.
In short, the team's overall condition is not as good as the opponent, and there are more injured players than the opponent. The media then wrote history in the newspapers, stating that since 1999, Eston Villa has not lost to Chelsea at home, and has drawn with Chelsea in the three matches before today's game.
For a time, there was a lot of talk that Chelsea was going to lose, and the Blues fans were very nervous as if they were facing a powerful enemy.
Mourinho was speechless. When he was interviewed, he said directly, "Even at Villa Park, their players will not kick any ball into our Chelsea goal!"
"We have Ritter!"
Before Endrit's clean sheet record was broken, Mourinho would use this set of rhetoric to face the media's doubts: You don't have to say it, no matter whether the media and fans believe this set of rhetoric or not, the Chelsea first-team players all believe it.
The man guarding Chelsea’s goal now is really the big daddy!
Mourinho believes that as Endrit's clean sheet record gradually increases, the fans will regain confidence in the team. As for the media: who cares what they say?
Anyway, if Endrit's shutout record is broken, it is because these media are not optimistic about Endrit, which seriously affects Endrit's mental state. If they hadn't questioned him every day, Endrit would definitely continue to keep the record!
………
At 16:00 local time in England, the fifth round of the 2007-2008 Premier League kicked off at Villa Park.
The home team Aston Villa played in a 4-4-2 formation, with No. 22 Carson as goalkeeper and the four defenders being No. 3 Bouma, No. 5 Laursen, No. 16 Knight and No. 4 Mellberg.
The midfielders are No. 6 Barry, No. 20 Leo Koke, No. 7 Ashley Young and No. 11 Agbonlahor.
The two forwards are No. 8 Luke Moore and No. 10 Carew.
"This is the 134th meeting between the two teams, with Chelsea having a slight advantage with 53 wins and 31 draws."
"The game started, and Chelsea striker Drogba kicked off."
From the beginning of the game, Chelsea played very aggressively - of course, it should be noted that this was not aimed at Aston Villa, but since the last game, Chelsea has been focusing on a "brainless attack".
After Drogba passed the ball to Makelele, all Chelsea players except goalkeeper Endrit pressed forward. Makelele rushed into the opponent's penalty area and passed the ball directly to Wright who was in a good position.
But as soon as the football flew to Wright's feet, the opposing defender Lawson knocked Wright down.
The referee blew the whistle to restart the game, but did not give any penalty. Although he knew the power of the home whistle at the beginning of the game, Mourinho still rushed to the fourth official to express his dissatisfaction.
"The opponent is simply an executioner! He tackled our Wright to the ground! This damn guy should be given a red card!"
The fourth official wiped the saliva from his face with a smile and persuaded patiently.
On the field, after the restart, Belletti passed the ball from the right, Malouda received the ball and ran straight to the penalty area, swung his left foot and shot a powerful shot.
However, the ball was quickly blocked by Barry, who has the same name as the Flash. The ball that seemed to be able to go in hit the goal but now hit the left post and went out.
In the seventh minute, Ashley from the opposing midfielder made a cross from the left, Abanglao stopped the ball with his chest and turned around to shoot. Endrit caught a glimpse of two forwards who had also rushed into the penalty area, and did not directly save the ball.
When the football was coming towards his face, he raised one hand and pressed the football into his arms, giving the opponent no chance to make a follow-up shot.
Later, Endrit threw the ball to his defender Ashley... Well, both of them were called Ashley, but it was obvious that his defender Ashley seemed more reliable.
Ashley received the ball and passed it to Malouda, who then passed it to Michael on the left while running.
Michael's shot was blocked by the opposing goal.
In the 12th minute, Chelsea tried to score again after taking a corner kick from the left side. John Terry headed the ball - but it missed.
In the 13th minute, Wright received a pass from Malouda and shot - but it still missed.
Chelsea attacked three times in a row but failed to score a goal. Mourinho, who had just returned from spitting at the fourth officials, stood on the sidelines, his face as black as coal in a mine.
After resting for a few minutes, Endrit returned to work. Less than a minute later, Abanglaho on the opposite side also made a header. Endrit jumped up and passed the ball to his teammate closest to him.
Two minutes later, Abanglaho from the opposite side attacked again with his header, but he was knocked over by Chelsea's Ashley when he reached the penalty area.
The referee immediately blew the whistle and did not award a free kick, but gave Ashley a direct yellow card warning.
The Easton Villa players immediately understood the scale of this game. They kept making small movements with their hands and feet, and easily resolved Drogba's arc shot, Wright's small-angle shot after a breakthrough, and Alex's header.
Otherwise, why do many teams like to play at home? Because in the Premier League, some referees' home whistles are quite obvious.
After the game with Liverpool, quite a number of media questioned that Chelsea's draw was due to the home whistle. At that time, Chelsea officials firmly stated that this incident did not exist and they had no idea whether there was a whistle at home or not.
But now, Mourinho wanted to beat up the referee on the field, but he had no choice. Even verbal attacks were useless at this time - some referees couldn't afford to play that and would send him off the field!
So, even with the home advantage, Aston Villa just shot more frequently: but scoring a goal is not determined by the number of shots.
In the 42nd minute, Aston Villa player Mellberg made a cross from the right, and Laursen headed the ball in the penalty area, but it was blocked by Endrit.
Three minutes passed quickly, and the ten minutes of halftime also passed in a flash. Endrit, who exchanged goalkeeping with the opposing goalkeeper, made another header in the second minute of the second half.
In the 56th minute, Leo Koke, who was overwhelmed, kicked Malouda directly. Malouda lay down holding his ankle. The referee immediately stepped forward and gave Leo a yellow card warning.
Yes, a yellow card warning.
The scene immediately exploded. The nearest Chelsea players immediately stepped forward to argue. There was a burst of boos at the scene. The referee quickly threw out several yellow cards and immediately took control of the field.
However, he still did not change the previous penalty and just continued with a yellow card warning.
But Mourinho on the sidelines slowly breathed a sigh of relief, because he knew that Aston Villa would not have any home whistles for the next period of time.
Although Malouda said he could continue playing after a short break, he was still replaced by Kalou by Mourinho.
In the 61st minute of the game, Chelsea's Ashley passed the ball from the backcourt, and Kalou, who came on as a substitute, shot at the edge of the penalty area, but was blocked by Leo Koke on the opposite side and the shot went wide.
Mourinho replaced Wright with Joe Cole, pushing his cheek hard.
Joe Cole had a chance to shoot after coming on, but it was unfortunately saved by the opposing goalkeeper Carson.
Starting from the 66th minute, as the end of the game approached, the football on the field became more intense again - the players from both sides were about to fight on the field.
The referee threw out several yellow cards, but it was obviously useless. After the game started again, the physical confrontation between the players of both sides escalated again. Drogba was injured and left the field. Mourinho replaced him with Pizarro with a dark face.
In the 88th minute, Endrit was hit hard in the face by the football: the opposing player Ashley Young quickly counterattacked and broke into the left side of the penalty area and shot directly. After the football flew out, Endrit began to judge the landing point of the ball, but who could have shot it after Abang Laho and hit his teammate Abang Laho directly, deflected the direction, and then rushed directly to the goal.
When Endrit reacted, he turned around and rushed out. The football hit him hard in the face and Endrit pressed him to the grass with a blank face.
Endritt then threw the football to Ashley.
With only 2 minutes left in the game, Ashley received the ball and made a cross. Midfielder Joe Cole was tackled again when he was about to shoot outside the penalty area.
When the two men got up, before they could launch another attack, they heard the referee blow the whistle to end the game.
Mourinho was so angry that he rolled his eyes and made up his mind to loudly criticize the damn referee at the press conference later: What if you blow the whistle like that? Can you win with a team? Even if Manchester United and Liverpool come, it won’t work!
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