CHELSEA and Aston Villa promised an absorbing exercise in foreign studies at Stamford Bridge yesterday but ultimately neither could make out a plausible case for going top of the class.
No sooner had Liverpool become the new Premiership leaders by winning 3-0 at Leicester than both teams were condemning an initially intriguing match to a mediocre draw.
The first half, played in mid September sunshine which belonged more to the Mediterranean than west London, was rich in imaginative passing and movement, with Villa's greater all round penetration looking capable of winning them the game. But the longer the shadows lengthened, the more the second half deteriorated.
In the end, and despite a rare mix of footballing cultures, the afternoon became a typically English scramble, with the ball increasingly given away and neither team finding the inspiration to break down the well organised defences.
Both Chelsea and Villa are capable of winning something this season but their influence on the championship will be peripheral if neither can show more consistency over 90 minutes.
The match was rather summed up by the fact that on a field laden with distinguished representatives from Brazil, Italy, France, Serbia, Romania and Tobago the best player overall while he might have had the most foreign sounding name hailed from nowhere more exotic than darkest Hackney. Neither Vialli nor Hughes disturbed the command of Ugo Ehiogu in the Villa defence.
Leboeuf, the Chelsea sweeper, marked another performance of quality with his third goal of the season, scored on the stroke of half time after Townsend had given Aston Villa the lead just past the quarter hour. That should have set the match up for a rousing climax but instead it lost the thread of the plot.
Although Villa had to be happy with a point after being bombarded with centres and corners late in the game, they will be disappointed not to have made their earlier superiority tell. This stemmed from the grip established by Curcic, arguably the summer's best buy. Townsend and Draper between the penalty areas.
With Nelson and Wright pushing up on the flanks and Yorke forever eluding the Chelsea defenders up front, Villa at times even tested the profound judgment of Leboeuf. Compared to Chelsea's square, over elaborate passing, Brian Little's team was more direct and better able to explore meaningful avenues in the approaches to goal.
For a time Curcic appeared to hold the key to a Villa victory. The Serb's close, neat control enabled him to set up quick exchanges of passes in crowded areas and one such move, after 28 minutes, might well have started to put the contest beyond Chelsea's reach.
After gathering a pass from Milosevic, Curcic worked a one two with Draper and then made space for a shot with a deft shuffle of the feet. Hitchcock made a smart save but Curcic should have scored.
Given Villa's superiority at that stage, Chelsea would have found it hard to come back from 2-0 down and avoid their season's first defeat. They had fallen behind in the 17th minute when Yorke tapped a free kick to Townsend, whose curling left footed shot defeated Hitchcock's attempt to keep it out of the top right hand corner of the net. In the fifth minute Townsend bad nearly scored with a diving header.
Ruud Gullit, Chelsea's manager, opted for a flat back four in the second half, taking off Johnsen and bringing Morris into midfield. The rest of the match went flat in sympathy.
