Abolitionists lobbying for the end of FA Cup replays found compelling evidence to support their cause in a Stamford Bridge stalemate.
Despite an abundance of good intentions, composure in the final third was as common as rocking horse droppings as Chelsea drew 0-0 with Aston Villa. Scrapping replays is a virtuous concept if it helps to declutter the fixture list, but it doesn’t solve profligacy on its own.
Mauricio Pochettino and Unai Emery could have detained their players until midnight, but in the absence of anyone who could locate the back end of an elephant with a carpet beater, a sequel by Spaghetti Junction was always the likeliest outcome. If Chelsea are to fulfil Poch Spice’s ambition of two Wembley finals this season, they will have to take the scenic route.
And for 6,000 travelling disciples from the land of strangled vowels, at least their traipse through Friday night traffic was not entirely in vain. Fortified by their six-goal blitz of Middlesbrough to reach the Carabao Cup final 72 hours earlier, Chelsea could be forgiven for setting about their second floodlit cup tie at Stamford Bridge this week with trepidation.
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They lost defender Levi Colwill to injury in the warm-up and within 12 minutes they were lucky not to fall behind when Douglas Luiz was penalised for handball after bundling in Moussa Diaby’s deflected shot. Good old VAR – you can always count on interfering jobsworths to spoil a game of football.
Without it, Chelsea had no problem in putting Boro to the sword, but now they were grateful to nit-pickers John Brooks, Simon Hooper and Matthew Wilkes for coming to the rescue. According to the letter of the law, on this occasion they were probably right, but only Blues keeper Djordje Petrovic was appealing for handball until the Stockley Park prefects intervened.
Chelsea failed to capitalise on their reprieve as Cole Palmer intercepted Clement Lenglet’s languid pass and Emi Martinez smothered the England winger’s shot. Dominating the wide areas, Chelsea made frequent excursions into the Villa box. For 45 minutes, Raheem Sterling didn’t just have Matty Cash on toast, he served the Polish full-back as bruschetta – but they had little to show for their territorial supremacy.
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Robin Jones/Getty Images)
Martinez made an instinctive, reflex save to prevent Alex Moreno diverting Palmer’s low cross into his own net and then the Argentina World Cup winner plunged low to keep out Benoit Badiashile’s header.
Villa didn’t just ride out the first-half storm – they should have gone in front when Youri Tielemans lifted Diaby’s cut-back over the top. But in this masterclass of wasted energy, there was no better example than Palmer intercepting Martinez’s clearance and scuffing his shot like a municipal golf club hacker’s ‘Mulligan’ off the first tee midway through the second period.
And the Blues were nearly made to pay dearly as Petrovic went full-length to deny Cash when Villa decided throwing off the shackles was a better option than soaking up the pressure.
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