Ireland, who made the wrong headlines this week for a twitter picture post of him smoking an Arabian pipe with a glass of booze in hand, made amends by making the key plays that won the game.
Trailing 1-0, after Didier Drogba's spot kick goal, Ireland initiated the move that drew Villa level. Ireland received a long ball from Richard Dunne, cut into the Chelsea box and fed Charles N'Zogbia to the left. N'Zogbia drove deep into the left side of the box before laying off for Ireland, who continued his run. Ireland's initial effort was stopped at the goal line by a John Terry hand ball, but he followed through and slotted home from close range.
The first half closed at 1-1.
In the second half, Chelsea tried to turn the game by introducing Frank Lampard and Fernando Torres. Torres looked the lively of the two subs, striking the crossbar with a cracking shot minutes after coming on for Daniel Sturridge. The other sub, Jose Bosingwa also had a cracking strike diverted off for a corner kick by American Brad Guzan
Gabby Agbonlahor missed a glorious chance to put Villa ahead in the 53rd minute. With only Petr Cech to beat, Agbonlahor released a weak shot that Cech easily saved. However, the introduction of Villa substitute Darren Bent provided more bite to Villa's counter attack, proving to be the catalyst that delivered the goods.
First, captain Petrov scored in the 83rd minute after finding himself one-B-one with Cech. Then Steven Ireland stole the ball to set up Darren Bent for the Coup-de-Grace in the 86th minute to send Stamford Bridge fans straight to the exit doors of the Stadium.
Two English Premier League giants defeated on the same day at home! New Year's eve is proving to be spookier than Halloween!
EPL forever!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment