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30.09.2006 / chelsea 1-1 aston villaTHOMAS SORENSEN was the hero as Aston Villa preserved their unbeaten start at champions Chelsea.
The Danish international pulled off a string of superb saves to earn Villa a hard-fought point.
Chelsea, who opened the scoring through Didier Drogba before Gabriel Agbonlahor equalised, dominated the contest.
But a combination of poor finishing and Sorensen's saves left Jose Mourinho's side frustrated.
Blues boss Mourinho said: "When you play well and don't get results, you are not frustrated - you just accept it.
"But when you play so well like we did and produce a game of high quality with so many chances to win the game, everybody knows you deserve to win.
"Their goalkeeper saved well. He made two or three very good saves but the post also did very well for them.
"But I don't want to focus on the strikers because everybody in my team had a chance to score a goal.
"The team played well but could not score enough goals to win. It was one of those games when I was praying for the ball to hit the net and Martin O'Neill was praying for the match to finish.
"We shared some nice words at the end. He's a good guy and a motivator. His team fights a lot.
"Sometimes people like him and players like that deserve a little bit of luck."
Villa boss O'Neill admitted his side were made to hang on under severe pressure to claim a point but was delighted with their performance.
O'Neill said: "I enjoyed it. We got off to a very poor start and looked more than a bit apprehensive.
"But after the first 10 or 12 minutes we started to cause them problems.
"We became more positive and we deserved to be level at half-time. We came under severe pressure in the second half, especially in the last 20 minutes.
"But we were a threat to them and thought we did very well. There's a bit more confidence in the side now and on another day we could have caved in. But we showed some resilience and didn't do that."
O'Neill's natural enthusiasm for the game brought him words of advice from both referee Graham Poll and Mourinho.
O'Neill said: "Graham just said to me I should not be contesting the decisions and he was right at that stage.
"There is only one referee in the game and it would have been good if he'd been it!
"Jose said I was contesting a lot of decisions and I might have a heart attack. He may be right on both.
"But he has been terrific for the game and they have got a great side. They are in full flow right now."
Drogba stunned O'Neill's side with his quickfire strike on three minutes.
Arjen Robben's free-kick caused confusion in the Villa defence before the ball fell to Drogba.
Olof Mellberg challenged but the striker forced the ball home.
Three minutes later Frank Lampard brought a superb save from Sorensen with a 25-yard drive.
Villa could have levelled when Stilian Petrov forced Petr Cech to punch the ball with a stinging 20-yard drive in the 15th minute.
But four minutes later Villa had Sorensen to thank for preventing Chelsea from adding to their lead.
Robben pulled back for Lampard to force the Danish goalkeeper into another fine save with a thumping left-footed drive.
In the 27th minute Sorensen had to be at his most alert to deal with a header from Michael Essien from another Lampard corner.
Chelsea continued to dominate and Drogba should have scored from the edge of the six-yard box in the 38th minute.
On the stroke of half time Agbonlahor took advantage of a wayward pass from Ricardo Carvalho to run at the Chelsea defence and win a corner.
Drogba's poor clearance was returned by Steven Davis who found Liam Ridgewell at the far post who headed for Agbonlahor to send a glancing effort past Cech.
Drogba and Lampard missed early chances after the break before Sorensen saved Villa yet again from Essien.
In the 67th minute Mourinho opted to give his side more attacking options and replaced Robben with Shaun Wright-Phillips and Geremi with Salomon Kalou.
The changes inspired Chelsea and Wright-Phillips smashed the ball against the underside of the crossbar in the 69th minute.
In the 72nd minute Lampard should have scored but he sent his header wide of the target after Wright-Phillips had found him on the edge of the six-yard box.
Moments later Sorensen was at it again when he flung himself into the air to prevent Shevchenko's 20-yard drive from finding the top corner as Villa held on to maintain their unbeaten start.
Chelsea: Cech, Geremi (Kalou 6 , Ricardo Carvalho, Terry, Ashley Cole, Essien, Makelele, Lampard, Shevchenko, Drogba, Robben (Wright-Phillips 6. Subs not used: Cudicini, Boulahrouz, Obi.
Goals: Drogba 3.
Aston Villa: Sorensen, Hughes, Mellberg, Ridgewell, Barry, Davis (Laursen 83), McCann, Petrov, Agbonlahor, Angel, Moore (Baros 40). Subs not used: Taylor, Whittingham, Berger.
Booked: McCann, Mellberg.
Goals: Agbonlahor 45.
Att: 41,951
Ref: G Poll (Hertfordshire).
THE SUN
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