Aston Villa midfielder Stiliyan Petrov believes Chelsea
are no longer the special team they once were under Jose
Mourinho.
Third-placed Villa meet the fourth-placed Blues in the Midlands
on Saturday in a crucial fixture that will determine which of the
sides can still harbor realisitic hopes of catching Manchester
United at the top of the table.
And the Bulgarian international, whose Villa side are unbeaten in
13 league games despite failing to win their last two cup
encounters, believes the Blues are a shadow of the side that
dominated English football for two seasons during the Portuguese
manager's tenure.
“When Jose Mourinho was here, they had a special team and they
had more belief in themselves," he said. "They are definitely not
the team they used to be under Jose Mourinho.
“A lot of changes have happened there but they will still be
strong, they have players to win games. We will try to give them as
much respect as we can but we will try to win as well.”
Martin O'Neill's side have not lost to Chelsea at Villa Park since
1999, winning three and drawing six of their last nine Premier
League meetings.
But Petrov says Villa must still be wary of their opponents,
with the Londoners desperate to impress temporary coach Guus
Hiddink, who will be taking charge of the club for the first time
at the weekend.
“Every new manager wants to start with a win, so we are
expecting a hard game," he said. "They’ll try to show that they can
still be at the top but we’ll try to show them that what we have
achieved so far is not just because of luck.”
The Villans have come a long way since their last encounter with
Chelsea, where they were comfortably beaten 2-0 at Stamford Bridge
earlier in October, recently setting a club record of seven
consecutive away wins in the league to make them genuine contenders
for Champions League qualification.
And Petrov says Saturday's re-match will prove a useful
comparison to how much Villa have improved since their 2-0 defeat
to the Blues earlier in the campaign.
“That is the game in which we were really outplayed," he said.
"They were quicker, faster and stronger than us and it is up to us
to see if we have taken anything from that game.
"We will find out if we have learnt from our mistakes, find out if
we are we going to be the same. We have a lot of points to prove,
we are not in our situation through luck but through hard work and
good play.
“I don't think we're in the title race because other teams have
been there for a long time and know what it needs to be champions,
we're just trying to break between them and show them that, in
years to come, we can build up something and maybe one year we can
challenge.”