The Aston Villa winger James Milner is believed to be close to agreeing to sign for Chelsea.
It was reported that Aston Villa had accepted a £20m bid for the England international, and agreed personal terms with the club last week, but then Man City decided to enter the bidding and put in an increased bid to try and tempt Milner to move north instead.
Man City took a big step towards winning Champions League football next season by coming back from a goal down to defeat their direct rivals for fouth place, Aston Villa.
John Carew put Villa ahead after just 16 minutes, and were playing well until a mad two minutes just before half-time when they conceded twice.
The Chelsea striker Didier Drogba scored yet another goal, to give Chelsea the lead against Aston Villa in the FA Cup semi-final, and now thinks that it is simply up to the team to carry on playing with belief, and go on to win the Double.
‘We expected a different game from Villa, and that’s exactly what happened,’ reported Drogba.
The Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti went to Wembley for the second time since he joined the Blues, and says that he loves the atmosphere. He also thought that Aston Villa made it very hard for his team in the first half, but Chelsea came through and comfortably won 3-0 in the end.
“Every time I come to this stadium there is a fantastic atmosphere, I’m very excited because it’s the second time now,” Ancelotti said.
Chelsea faced Aston Villa in the first FA Cup semi-final on Saturday, and there were many contentious decisions by the referee (most of them in Chelsea’s favour according to Martin O’Neill).
But the record books will show that Chelsea comfortably won the game 3-0 with two goals coming in the last ten minutes after Didier Drogba opened the scoring earlier on in the second half.
The Aston Villa boss Martin O’Neill was not happy after seeing his team lose 3-0 to Chelsea, and thinks that if the referee hadn’t been biased then it would have ben a much closer game.
O’Neill said: “It’s a strong word and I’m going to use it – this was an injustice. The ref has completely bottled it.
The Chelsea coach Carlo Ancelotti is refusing to take Aston Villa lightly, despite the fact that Chelsea brushed them aside 7-1 just a couple of weeks ago, and he has confirmed that Didier Drogba will start the game after being left on the bench for the previous two matches.
“I’m sure it will be a different game. We will not think about that match,” Ancelotti said. “Aston Villa will play a different game, they will have a good direction, so we will play attention.
There are numerous reports and rumours circulating saying that Martin O’Neill has resigned as manager of Aston Villa after seeing his side destroyed 7-1 by Chelsea this weekend. The club are refusing to comment but it has been privately stated that the rumours are “pure nonsense”.
After the Chelsea match O’Neill announced that he took full resposibilty for the defeat. He said: “The buck stops with me,”
The Chelsea captain John Terry says that he thought that Aston Villa played well in the first half of their 7-1 defeat on Saturday, but he says that, after watching Villa’s last few games, he knew they would get tired towards the end of the game.
He also believes that the new formation implemented by Carlo Ancelotti has had a lot to do with the team’s success this season: ‘The formation suits us probably a little bit better with the two widemen,’ Terry said.
The Aston Villa manager Martin O’Neill watched his team get torn apart by Chelsea this weekend, the 7-1 defeat being Villa’s worst ever result in the Premier League. After the game he said that if his team play like that again when they face Chelsea again in the FA Cup Semi-Final at Wembley then they may as well just stay at home!
