On a bitter night Chelsea and Aston Villa fought out a commendably feisty draw that will leave Dean Smith the happier manager. Villa produced a compact, resilient performance and might easily have won, even if Anwar El Ghazi’s second-half goal was helped by weak defending from Andreas Christensen, who injured his foot trying to foul Jack Grealish.
For Frank Lampard a point made it four from a possible 15 over 17 days either side of Christmas. Chelsea were bitty at times and convincing at others but there was no lack of effort or fight. “The performance was good, I thought we deserved to win the game, we saw a lot of good signs in the attitude of the team,” Chelsea’s manager said.
