SOCCER/Aston Villa - 0 Chelsea - 0: David O'Leary regards his Aston Villa side as underdogs but he will be astonished to find Chelsea trying to squeeze into the kennel. The visitors' manager was implying after this game that they are an unloved cur compared with Arsenal or Manchester United. By Jose Mourinho's account they are no referee's pet.

He reeled off favourable decisions awarded by officials to the other two clubs.

Chelsea were wronged when Rob Styles gave no penalty, 10 minutes from the end, as Ulises de la Cruz bumped Didier Drogba.

The referee aggravated his mistake by booking the striker, although it is thought that he has now decided to rescind the caution.

Mourinho was angry in earnest but he may have additional motives as well.

Pressure has now been applied to the officials who take charge of Chelsea's next few Premiership fixtures.

Mourinho was also supplying a rallying grievance for a disparate Chelsea, whose line-up at Villa Park comprised seven different nationalities and six men in their first year in England.

Perhaps, too, his protest will distract these players from becoming dejected.

Chelsea have made an excellent start to the season but an afternoon like this showed they have picked the most demanding of periods to bid for the championship.

Despite being incapable of outclassing Villa, they would have been happy enough with a draw to follow four victories had it not been for Arsenal's success at Fulham.

A strain is imposed by the excellence of Arsene Wenger's team.

Chelsea, inevitably, have many tasks yet to complete. Villa might have beaten them had Darius Vassell not scuffed the ball wide in the 75th minute.

The defence, however, will not be found on Mourinho's 'To Do' list. His centre-halves are daunting to rival forwards, with Vassell and Juan Pablo Angel making virtually no headway on this occasion.

Behind Ricardo Carvalho and John Terry the goalkeeper Petr Cech is starting to transmit an impression of command.

At full-back, nonetheless, one starts to see the little difficulties that could entangle Chelsea as they seek to keep pace with Arsenal.

Paulo Ferreira is stuffy enough but there is hardly any trace of the footballer who was an important attacking outlet at Porto.

That prominence should return but time is against Chelsea, just as it is in attaining fluidity.

They made a few chances on Saturday and in stoppage time the substitute Eidur Gudjohnsen thrashed his shot high but Villa were never overwhelmed.

Gavin McCann and others in this good side often disrupted Chelsea's prosaic work.

O'Leary had rejigged his formation so it matched Mourinho's and the direct comparison did not shame them. Nolberto Solano, during his 58 minutes on the field, was, for instance, a far better prompter of the strikers than Joe Cole.

There is a stong current of goodwill towards Cole that ought to sweep his career forward.

The idea of England having a man fitting the continental bill of a stylish number 10 is so enticing that people will persuade themselves into believing he has already reached that level. But that is not so.

It is fairly uncommon for him to set up a good chance for a team-mate and Mourinho was unimpressed.

The manager termed Cole and Tiago "anonymous", reasoning that men who appeared little or not at all for their countries this week have idled enough so that they suffered from a lack of proper training.

Chelsea will examine other options for tomorrow's away match with Paris St-Germain and Damien Duff will come back into their plans.

O'Leary said that on Saturday he had been asking Scott Parker, another unused Stamford Bridge player, for advice on his iPod.

Mourinho, similarly, will naturally need a little time before he works out exactly how to operate the Chelsea squad.

Man of the match: McCann (Aston Villa)