Aston Villa lose to Chelsea in last twenty minutes

It really doesn´t matter what I write here, the result says it all but we can gloss it over for you and no doubt it will be glossed over by most.

I could write how I am proud of the players, but it wouldn´t be the truth. The truth is, if you pay me £30k a week over four years I will do pretty much anything and effort and determination is hardly something we have lacked the past three and a half seasons.

Effort and determination is the one thing you can count on from our players and actually it is something you would hope for even if they were not getting paid £30k a week.

The fact is, in the first half Chelsea didn´t look like they left third gear, but we didn´t either and neither team really deserved to be leading in the first half.

Chelsea looked more composed on the ball and we look more dangerous on the counter attack. It was pretty much how you would expect both teams to play.

The second half was a little different and I actually thought, after about 15 minutes, that we could get something. Then Chelsea scored with just over 20 minutes to go.

It then took O´Neill nearly fifteen minutes to make his first change, bringing on Heskey for Carew with eight minutes to go, by which time Chelsea had put on their remaining two players after Cole was substituted for Chelsea three minutes before the Chelsea goal.

You have to trust your players, you do, but you can trust more than eleven and when that eleven haven't really looked like scoring for the first 70 minutes, nobody would have blamed O´Neill had he made earlier changes.

So - say what you want about the game, the result says it all for me and well, I´m honestly not surprised and I know what is coming, but honestly, are you?

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