Foysonous! Aston Villa v Chelsea Match Report

The Little Horse took a tumble this weekend, as we lost 1-0 to the Villains, making the title challenge squeaky to say the least. But the real Villain of the piece was one Christopher Foy, Scouser, former Policeman and full time Chelsea hater, whose criminally incompetent decisions surely changed the match to Villa’s benefit. He has now sent off 6 Chelsea players and one manager in his last 8 games – a fit up? Surely there should be a steward’s inquiry?

Villa have often been a bogey side for Chelsea and remarkably Jose Mourinho has never beaten them  – the only Premier League club he has not won against. Sadly, that stat remains but the jury is out as to whether Chelsea’s somewhat leggy performance and inability to break Villa down and the familiar story of the absence of a decent striker were our downfall or the all too familiar, disgraceful and arguably biased at worst, incompetent at best, refereeing decisions by Chris Foy.

For me though, a draw would have been a fair result. We didn’t much look like scoring, but then we didn’t much look like conceding either, being in control for much of the match. There is no doubt that the game changed on two key moments. Firstly, Matic’s goal being ruled out for handball – a 50:50 to be fair and definitely not a clear cut hand ball. What irked most Chelsea supporters was the fact that the linesman seemed keen to change Foy’s mind even though he was un-sighted and surely could not have seen the ball hit Matic’s upper arm. Furthermore, Foy, who had a better view signaled the goal and then changed his mind. Had that goal stood then the space would have opened up for Chelsea to exploit.

Before that the linesman flagged two attacks offside when TV replays showed them to be onside, marginal at best, and Ramires had been hacked down when through on goal. Possibly a harsh red on Baker should have followed – he got yellow, but a red could have been given, and then the balance of the game shifts in Chelsea’s favour.

The key moment in the game though was the sending off of Willian for an innocuous challenge which certainly did not warrant the second yellow card he received. Foy had his red card out of his pocket before Delph had even completed his rather limp fall. It appeared that he was itching to send off the 7th Chelsea player he has dismissed in his career. In true Foy style he failed to show any consistency when he perhaps should have sent off Baker for what should have been his second yellow card for a foul on Schurrle.

After that Chelsea lost the plot somewhat, going behind to a brilliant or lucky back heeled flick from Delph, although Ramires had arguably been fouled in the build up. That doesn’t forgive the poor marking and tracking back though. Shortly afterwards Ramires was rightly sent off for what appeared to be a stamp as he followed through on  Karim El Ahmadi. I was rather forgiving of ‘Rubber Man’ Ramires in an interview with talkSPORT on Saturday evening (listen here in the 22.00-22.30 slot 24 minutes and 45 seconds in) suggesting that it was more of a clumsy challenge rather than a malicious one, but it was certainly a red card, and if there was intent he can expect a lengthy ban – not what we need at the moment with Arsenal coming up next week, and not the first time he has been rash.

Of course Chris Foy had not finished yet as he then sent off Jose Mourinho apparently for coming on to the pitch, ignoring the fact that half of both Chelsea and Villa’s coaching staff, including manager Lambert had done so as well, not to mention Gaby Agbonlahor attempting to grab Ramires in the process.

All in all a match for Chelsea and Chelsea supporters to forget, especially when coupled with Man City, Arsenal and Liverpool all winning and clawing back our lead at the top of the table. But, top we still are, and it might just be that Jose Mourinho will use this game to build a fortress mentality – us against the world – for the remainder of the run in. What is for sure though is that the Arsenal and Liverpool games now carry even greater importance, but we can ill afford slip ups against the teams we are expected to beat if we are to win the title this year.  At least we won’t have to suffer Chris Foy again this season!

On the Chelsea FanCast tonight, Stamford Chidge will be joined by Dazza, Pablo. Jonathan Kydd and the boys on the Benches! We are also joined by former Chelsea player and great friend of the show Paul ‘King Canners‘ Canoville, and Tom Deacon The Eurofan from Copa 90.

We’ll be discussing the Villa match, Chris Foy’s appalling refereeing and having a look at Ross’ player ratings . We’ll also be asking has Foy ended our title hopes; should Eto’o be our first choice striker and will Jose build a fortress mentality for the title run in? We’ll be awarding our Man Of The Match, Chant Of The Match, Celery and Guinness moments in the Fannies. You have until 19.30 GMT Monday 17th to get your votes for these in on the website at chelseafancast.com/the-fannies/.

Our special guest is former Chelsea player Paul Canoville, for his fourth time on the show and first since we’ve been on TV. We’ll be talking to Paul about his Q&A event with Pat Nevin, Kerry Dixon, Mickey Thomas and Big Doug Rougvie and also about that famous 1983-84 season when Chelsea won the old Division 2 to get back to Division 1. In addition we’ll be talking to  Tom Deacon who is ‘The Eurofan’ from Copa 90. He’ll be telling us all about his experiences of following football clubs all over Europe during the Champion’s League, and we’ll be setting him some challenges as he takes on the mantle of being a Chelsea fan for one night when we take on Galatasary on Tuesday night.

Don’t forget you can tweet or post in mixlr or skype in during the show to tell us what you think about the Villa game, ask Canners and Tom a question or anything else you want to get off your chest in “You’re on CFFC” Add our Skype address chelsea.fancast and we’ll get in touch!

Don’t forget to tune in at 19.00-21.00 GMT on Monday 17th March for “Foysonous!” – The Chelsea FanCast #280 on sportstonightlive.com, mixlr.com or watch live here