O'Neill outwits Mourinho

Chelsea - 1 Aston Villa - 1: Arriving back in London at five o'clock on Thursday morning after their successful trip to Bulgaria, Chelsea had only 58 hours in which to recover and prepare for their seventh Premiership game of the season, arranged for the unfamiliar hour of three o'clock on Saturday afternoon. This is the kind of old-fashioned schedule with which the young Martin O'Neill became familiar during Nottingham Forest's two European Cup-winning runs a quarter of a century ago.

"Away nights in Europe are exceptionally hard, as I know from personal experience," the Derryman said after watching his Aston Villa side leave the Stamford Bridge pitch with a point from an exhilarating match, their unbeaten league record intact.

Although Stilian Petrov was Villa's most polished and influential performer, Thomas Sorensen deserved special praise for his recovery from the error that presented Chelsea with the lead in the second minute. Under pressure from John Terry as Arjen Robben swung in a free-kick from the right, Villa's goalkeeper dropped the ball in the goalmouth and watched in horror as Didier Drogba, at the third attempt, prodded the ball across the line. Thereafter Sorensen displayed a resolution that reached its apogee 75 minutes later, when he flew across his goal to turn away the 20-yard shot with which Andriy Shevchenko, dropping deeper and straining every sinew throughout the second half, believed he had doubled his total of Premiership goals.

Chelsea came even closer when Shaun Wright-Phillips, taking Robben's place, lashed a tight-angled shot against the underside of the bar. A minute later the winger perpetrated a far less glorious miss, meeting a half-clearance from Salomon Kalou's shot with a side-footed effort so weakly misdirected Frank Lampard headed it narrowly wide.

But Villa, too, had their chances to improve on the goal given them by Gabriel Agbonlahor on the stroke of half-time, the unmarked 19-year-old neatly slanting his header inside the post after Steven Davis, pulling wide on O'Neill's instruction, had found Liam Ridgewell with a long diagonal ball which the centre-back nodded across the goalmouth. Two minutes later, in the final seconds of first-half stoppage-time, Milan Baros was in the clear but put his shot too close to Petr Cech. Claude Makelele could and probably should have been sent off for hauling back Juan Pablo Angel after the interval, and a minute from the end of the match Baros set up a fine chance for the Colombian, who volleyed wide.

Worse news for O'Neill, however, came with the early prognosis for the injury that forced Luke Moore to make way for Baros after 40 minutes, a collision with Terry having dislocated the 20-year-old's shoulder. "He has a problem with it because it does come out and most of the time they fit it back in. This time they couldn't. It looks as if he'll need an operation," said O'Neill.

With Villa looking overawed and overpowered in the opening exchanges, O'Neill had made a quick-witted switch to 4-4-2, moving Moore up in support of Angel and withdrawing Agbonlahor into the midfield.

As ever, the manager's contribution also extended to a display of touchline histrionics which eventually attracted the attention of Mourinho, who delivered a friendly lecture on the need to watch his blood pressure, as well as drawing a warning from Graham Poll. "I'm afraid that's me," an amused O'Neill said when asked if a continued run of good results might persuade him to calm down. "But Graham was right. I shouldn't be contesting decisions. There's only one referee in the match, and it would have been good if he'd been it."

Now Terry and Lampard, who played in Sofia and were unimpressive on Saturday, have a week to recover before the first of England's brace of Euro 2008 qualifying matches. Wright-Phillips, who also came off the bench against Levski, will be hoping for an opportunity to take advantage of the injured Aaron Lennon's absence from the squad, and Ashley Cole, unused in midweek but exposed by the spirited Agbonlahor, needs to recover his former dynamism if he is not to fall behind Wayne Bridge in the esteem of both Mourinho and Steve McClaren.

Guardian Service