Chelsea and Aston Villa did not go beyond 0-0 in the FA Cup fourth round duel and will play for a place in a replay (tiebreaker) in Birmingham.
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Those of Unai Emery, who were supported by a great Emiliano ‘Dibu’ Martínez and they ended up dominating Chelsea and with the majority of clear chances, They spared the lives of the ‘Blues’ and will have the advantage of playing at home to advance in the cup competition.
Despite the green shoots from the win on Tuesday against Middlesbrough, Chelsea once again left many doubts, already from the starting lineup, again with four center backs in the back line and without pure full-backs.
With the VAR ready in this competition in the Premier stadiums, unlike the League Cup, Chelsea breathed a sigh of relief when a shot from Diaby was rejected by the young Gilchrist, touched Douglas Luiz and the Brazilian scored into an empty goal.
The Chelsea players called the midfielder offside, but the VAR noticed the Brazilian’s handball and annulled it.
Villa’s failed goal gave way to minutes and minutes of dominance by Chelsea, who encountered five saves from ‘Dibu’ in the first half, the most important of which were Cole Palmer in a one-on-one and Madueke one meter from the line. of goal after a filtered pass from Raheem Sterling and a run along the baseline by Palmer. Between Emiliano and Álex Moreno, starter at left back, they disabled Chelsea’s best performance in the match.
With the ‘Blues’ more tired, having played on Tuesday, Villa took a step forward in the second half and began to dangerously reach Petrovic’s goal.
Ollie Watkins and Matt Cash tested the Serbian goalkeeper, very safe and confident, leaving the feeling that when Robert Sánchez returns he will have a very difficult time becoming a starter again.
In the torrent of chances for Emery’s team, ‘Dibu’ came close to giving away the game when he made a mistake in taking the ball and crashed the ball into Palmer’s body. The midfielder found the rebounded ball coming down from the sky and missed the volley. He bit him and the opportunity for this tie not to be repeated in a few weeks at Villa Park disappeared. EFE