Chelsea 1 Aston Villa 1

Last updated : 18 July 2007 By Paul Lagan
Thomas Sorensen produced a brilliant display to defy Chelsea and prevent the Premiership leaders gaining another scalp at Stamford Bridge, as Aston Villa earned a 1-1 draw.

The Dane was simply inspired as he thwarted Chelsea's incessant attacks, and Villa remained unbeaten this season.

But Sorensen could not stop Chelsea making the perfect start as they led by a goal up within the first three minutes.

A free-kick by Arjen Robben, wide on the right, was met by John Terry who got ahead of Sorensen and flicked the ball down into the path of Didier Drogba, who bundled the ball home from two yards for his eighth goal of the season.

A blistering shot by Frank Lampard two minutes later almost extended the lead but a fine save by Sorensen, the first of many, tipped the ball around the post.

The Midlanders forced their way back into the game by consolidating with neat possession play.

In fact their first effort on goal, on 15 minutes, saw a fine save by Petr Cech who parried away a right-footer from Stilian Petrov.

Juan Pablo Angel then skied the ball over the crossbar following a corner. Livewire Robben skipped past two defenders on 19 minutes, before sending in a low drive. Lampard met the ball with a left-footer from 12 yards and the ball went straight into the midriff of Sorensen.

Michael Essien almost got on the scoresheet on 27 minutes, when he rose to head down a Lampard corner. Again Sorensen reacted well to smother the goalbound effort.

Things did not improve for Villa on 40 minutes when striker Luke Moore was replaced by Milan Baros. Moore left the field with what seemed an injured shoulder.

However, a minute from half-time, Villa were level.

A deep cross by Steven Davis was met by Liam Ridgewell who headed back towards goal. Gabriel Agbonlahor reacted quickest and glanced the ball wide of the desparing dive of Cech.

Baros almost grabbed second on the stroke of half-time, when he weaved his way across the edge of the Chelsea penalty area. But he scuffed his right-foot drive which fell into the outstretched arms of Cech.

Buoyed by his goal, Agbonlahor went off on a mazy run on 47 minutes and was unlucky to see his left-footed drive deflected for a corner.

Drogba should have put Chelsea back into the lead on 52 minutes but his first-time shot went straight to Sorensen.

Andriy Shevchenko had a free-kick on 55 minutes, but the Ukraine striker, desperate for a goal, produced a duff effort which failed to get past the Villa wall.

Sorensen was again called into action on 61 minutes when he pulled off an excellent save from an Essien piledriver.

Lampard popped up with a trademark free-kick a minute later. Again Sorensen was equal to it.

Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho rang the changes on 68 minutes, replacing Geremi with Salomon Kalou and Robben with Shaun Wright-Phillips.

Within two minutes Wright-Phillips smashed the ball against the Villa crossbar. Sixty seconds later the winger was free on the right, but screwed the ball wide of a gaping goal.

Shevchenko almost got his goal, but his vicious right-footer from the edge of the Villa penalty area was brilliantly tipped over the cross bar by man of the match Sorensson.

Villa almost scraped a late winner when Baros saw his left-footer smash into Chelsea's sidenetting.