Villa's younger players take heart from striker's robust presence to give G�rard Houllier a welcome boost against Chelsea
So impressive were Aston Villa in snatching a point against the champions today that it was impossible not to wonder where they might be sitting in the Premier League table now had G�rard Houllier been able to rely on the fitness, form and goodwill of his senior players throughout the first half of the season.
Instead, for a variety of reasons, Houllier found himself forced to compensate for significant absences by staging a wholesale raid on the ranks of recent graduates to the first-team squad. The likes of Marc Albrighton, Barry Bannan, Nathan Delfouneso and Jonathan Hogg display rich promise, but the result was a downward spiral to the point where a club who challenged for a Champions League place last season found themselves on the fringe of the relegation zone. A draw against Chelsea is not by itself enough to lift them out of danger but it did show that they are not in nearly as bad a state as their results in November and December suggested.
Under the eyes of their American owner, Randy Lerner, Villa played with strength and concentration at the back, resolution in midfield and commitment up front. They shaded a first half which ended 1-1 before taking the lead a couple of minutes after the interval, and if Chelsea's thunderous crescendo made the second and third goals look probable rather than possible, then the injury-time header with which Ciaran Clark restored parity was no more than the visitors deserved on the balance of play.
Houllier made four changes of personnel from the side who lost 4-0 at Eastlands last Tuesday, all of them significant and some of them surprisingly so. It was hardly astonishing, of course, to see Emile Heskey returning to the line-up and playing so effectively in the opening period before scoring his side's second goal. Heskey and Houllier have enjoyed a productive relationship ever since the Frenchman paid Leicester City �11m of Liverpool's money for the striker's services a decade ago, before his value declined through moves to Birmingham, Wigan and finally Villa.
Built like a brute, Heskey is nevertheless a notorious sufferer from fragile confidence and Houllier, not always the most kid-gloved of man-managers, seems to understand how to give the big fellow the reassurance he needs in order to perform at his best. Just over a week away from his 33rd birthday, Heskey was as influential as anyone on the pitch, providing an invaluable point of reference for the younger players around him. On this occasion Gabriel Agbonlahor and Ashley Young, a couple of habitual underachievers, responded eagerly.
Two minutes after his goal, Heskey also received the last of the seven yellow cards distributed to Villa players, joining Stilian Petrov, James Collins, Brad Friedel, Nigel Reo-Coker, Agbonlahor and Clark in the referee's notebook. Asked about the club being fined for exceeding five cautions in a match, Houllier gave a broad smile. "I'll pay, if necessary," he said, tacitly confirming the feeling that a show of aggression had played a part in his side's approach.
He had been nervous that one of his players would collect a second card and be removed from a finely balanced contest. Interestingly, however, Villa showed a discipline that enabled them to survive the last 40 minutes of almost unrelenting Chelsea pressure, plus five minutes of stoppage time, without incurring Lee Mason's further displeasure.
Among the reasons for their success were two outstanding saves from Friedel midway through the second period, the American deflecting Frank Lampard's scorching volley before sprinting out to block Florent Malouda's close-range effort after Lampard had sent the pass of the match slicing through the visitors' back line. Friedel will be 40 in May but, like Edwin van der Sar at Old Trafford, he will be hard to replace.
Richard Dunne sometimes seems a lot older than his 31 years and in recent weeks he has looked surplus to requirements at Villa Park. An alarming plunge in the centre-back's form provided a reminder of a similar phenomenon that prefaced his departure from Manchester City and this time it coincided with stories of a training-ground dispute with Gary McAllister, Houllier's assistant.
Today, however, recalled to face Chelsea's heavyweight attack, the Irishman gave a performance reminiscent of his best days, full of brusque vigour, cold-eyed determination and the kind of perfectly timed intervention that allowed him to stop the marauding Salomon Kalou well inside the Villa area after 75 minutes.
The visitors' success also owed much to the combination of Petrov and Reo-Coker in central midfield. Like Heskey and Dunne, neither would make a Premier League All Stars XI. Today, however, their unremitting effort was exactly what their manager had called for on a day when he needed to show his employer that all is not lost.
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