Branislav Ivanovic Scores Another Crucial Goal To Win A Crucial Game!

It’s the morning after Branislav Ivanovic sealed an important victory for Chelsea FC against Aston Villa!! I am currently sat in a hotel room in Birmingham still buzzing, from yesterday’s victory

It was a great away day. You can see my Matchday Experience + Review of the win , in which I have footage from Villa Park and a lot of singing.

Before the game, in my preview I thought that this was a really important game. Coming off the clash with Manchester City last Saturday this was always going to be a very crucial game, to really push on and start to gain momentum in the title race. Pre match I predicted in my video preview that I thought Juan Cuadrado would get his debut and Kurt Zouma would start in defence. Neither of those things happened with Willian keeping his place and Gary Cahill coming back into the team.

The game started quickly for us. After 8 minutes when a lovely quick bit of play at the edge of the box by Oscar who fed it to Willian and the Brazilian put in a lovely weighted pass towards the goal, which Eden Hazard ran onto and clinically put away with ease, 1-0! We all go mad in the away end.

I felt we could and should of really pushed on from here and put in a dominating performance, but we seemed to allow Aston Villa a way back into the game and didn’t really go at Villa. One of the big problems which was evident for me was the fact that Didier Drogba really started to show his age in this game in my opinion. Personally, I feel Didier can offer something as either an impact player or when we are on the front foot at home to the likes of Aston Villa. Not when we are playing on the counter, also Didier’s hold up was poor in the game and for me slowed are play down at time and this was a problem, until he came off.

I felt we could and should of really pushed on from here and put in a dominating performance, but we seemed to allow Aston Villa a way back into the game

During the first half, news had come in of Manchester City losing 1-0 at home to Hull and once suddenly everyone had heard the score and then when they put it on the big screen a loud chant of “Were top of the the league” rang out from all of us.

I was so disappointed and frustrated though on the start we made to the second half. It seemed the players instead of coming out motivated they were half asleep. One of the things I demand from players above all else including flair, skill etc. is hard work and the players simply didn’t do that in the first 5 minutes of the second half, they switched off and evidently we were punished.

After an Aston Villa corner had been nodded clear there was no pressure from any Chelsea player and Gil slipped easily passed Oscar and was able to pick out the cross and find Okore at the back post to give Villa their first goal in nearly 11 hours of Premier League football.

It was so cheap and easy for Aston Villa, it felt like we’d suddenly made the game difficult for ourselves for no reason and that was frustrating.

The players seemed to go straight back at Villa and Willian looked most dangerous, finding space at the edge of the box and shooting low just passed Brad Guzan’s post. Didier Drogba came off for Loic Remy, which was an obvious sub but was a good one and gave us more pace going forward. Then after a few glimpses of goal and smart build up play around the goal Azpilicueta found space on the left hand side and poked the ball across goal which found it’s way to Branislav Ivanovic who volleyed it into the top corner, leaving Guzan stranded.

It was a great moment and more importantly a very crucial one.It was easy to see to problems of last season reemerging again and us dropping 2 or maybe even 3 points at a crucial stage, but more importantly to me this season it has shown the evolution and the development of the team. Without Diego Costa and Cesc Fabregas still being able to get the job done is a positive sign.

It was easy to see to problems of last season reemerging again and us dropping 2 or maybe even 3 points at a crucial stage, but more importantly to me this season it has shown the evolution and the development of the team

Also, I would just like to point out how poor again the refereeing performance was! Marriner like all Premier League refs are inconsistency’s best mate and continued to show the major problem with the lack of common sense and understanding for the game.

When I got back from the game I was able to watch the whole 90 minutes in my hotel room and I thought I didn’t need to watch that on TV to see that it was an awful referring performance. What’s worse is when watching the highlights of all the other games it seems the same thing.

From there, we were able to get our first glimpse of new signing Juan Cuadrado. Willian got a big applause from the travelling support and he deserved it, I really do rate Willian and for me it looks like we have now got two young talented wingers who will fight for their place in the team. The Columbian in truth didn’t have much chance to do anything but when he did get the ball he ran straight down the wing with no hesitancy and I’m looking forward to seeing more of him.