BIRMINGHAM, England: Jose Mourinho admitted he could not blame Roman Abramovich for leaving early after Martin O'Neill's Aston Villa became the first side to beat Chelsea this season.

Abramovich, Chelsea's Russian owner, departed seconds after Villa scored its second goal to condemn the Blues to its first defeat since late January.

Debutant Zat Knight and Gabriel Agbonlahor, both local boys and lifelong Villa supporters, scored in the second half to leave Mourinho still waiting for his first Premier League victory at Villa Park.

It was a performance that suggested Chelsea might struggle to reclaim the league title this season, but Mourinho insisted that there was no great significance in Abramovich's early exit.

The Portuguese said: "Can I blame him for being frustrated? No. The owner leaves the stadium when he wants to leave. I went to see England play Germany the other week and left early because I wanted to run away from the traffic.

"But my congratulations go to Villa because we made a mistake we cannot make and got punished. We played well in my opinion.

"I'm not used to losing games which is a good thing. It is good because it means we win more than we lose and it's more difficult to live with a defeat."

The defeat means Liverpool and Arsenal have already established an early edge on Chelsea in the title race and Mourinho admitted: "The league will be tighter this year because a lot of teams have spent a lot of money.

"In my opinion there are a lot of good teams and a big improvement. It is more normal for the big teams to lose matches now.

"It's more difficult to play against teams like Villa because they are better. It is the first weekend of September and five games in so this means nothing yet."

Villa fully deserved its victory with an effervescent performance and is surely certain to make a marked improvement on its first season under Martin O'Neill.

Villa has avoided defeat to Chelsea since 1999 and Martin O'Neill was determined to pile on the agony.

O'Neill is convinced that Villa's inability to claw its way higher up the table has been a result of the team's failure to beat the more established sides.

Liverpool has already accounted for Villa this season but its hoodoo over Chelsea showed no sign of abating at an exuberant Villa Park.

It could have gone in front early when Agbonlahor, the England under-21 international, nearly stunned the visitors in the eighth minute with a clever turn and shot but Petr Cech produced an excellent save.

But Chelsea responded strongly with Scott Carson, the England international goalkeeper, frustrating long-range efforts from Michael Essien and Shaun Wright-Phillips.

Villa's start to the second half was equally impressive and Ashley Young forced more heroics from Cech with a fine 20-yard effort.

From the resultant corner, Villa took the lead. Gareth Barry's corner was powerfully met by Knight and Ashley Cole on the goalline could not prevent it from finding the net.

Chelsea's misery was complete when Agbonlahor diverted Ashley Young's fierce cross cum shot past Cech a minute from time.

"We needed a good result against a good team like Chelsea to give us a boost," said O'Neill.

"We need it to give us some belief. But if you ask me if this team is better than it was last year I would say absolutely no question.

"We are getting better all the time and we've got loads of talent in the team. We've got that desire that Chelsea have shown in abundance again and again and again.

"I don't mind the expectation because this club should be built on it. We're not as good as the top four sides but we aspire to be.

"I'll now just wait and worry while my players are on international duty."

AFP

(China Daily 09/04/2007 page23)