Wilkins warns Villa to expect a different animal in semi

By Chris Hatherall

Monday, March 08, 2010

RAY WILKINS has warned FA Cup semi-final opponents Aston Villa that Chelsea are a very different animal to the one that lost 2-1 at Villa Park in the Premier League earlier this season.

Holders Chelsea have been drawn to face Villa at Wembley in April and assistant manager Wilkins admits it is possibly the toughest draw his team could have faced.

Goals from Richard Dunne and James Collins, both from set-plays, earned Villa victory against Carlo Ancelotti’s side in October, a result that could given them a psychological edge going into the semi-final.

With giant striker John Carew scoring a hat-trick at Reading to put Villa in the last four Chelsea know they can expect another aerial bombardment when the teams meet again, but having seen off the physical challenge of Stoke yesterday they are confident of coping.

Chelsea assistant manager Wilkins said: "It will no doubt be a very tough game for us. They beat us earlier in the season at Villa Park. But that was quite a while ago.

"The type of problems they gave us at Villa Park were from set plays but I think you can see from the way we defended against Stoke today that we are ready for that."

Frank Lampard, who scored his team’s opening goal in a 2-0 victory over Stoke, believes the result has already revitalised their season and wiped out memories of a disappointing 4-2 defeat at home to Manchester City in Chelsea’s last match.

He said: "It’s never easy after a defeat like last week when we didn’t play to our standards but we came back determined to put it right. It was a difficult game and we handled it very well.

"Wembley is a great day out for the fans, we hold the trophy at the minute and we want to keep it."

Chelsea captain John Terry, who set up Lampard’s goal and then scored the second himself, thanked the club for their support following the recent problems in his private life. "Chelsea have been very supportive but the main thing today was coming back from a disappointing performance," he said. "We wanted to show the fans how much it meant to us."

Stoke manager Tony Pulis refused to be downhearted after his FA Cup dream was ended, insisting: "We’ve knocked Arsenal and Man City out of the FA Cup and to pull Chelsea out of the hat at Stamford Bridge was a difficult tie. The players were first class, though, we gave everything and had a right go."

This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Monday, March 08, 2010