Apr 11

Martin O’Neill rages against injustice against Chelsea| Paul Hayward

Aston Villa manager loses his cool as referee ‘bottles’ two big decisions in FA Cup semi-final at Wembley

For a few weeks now people have wondered which provocation would really make Martin O’Neill erupt. The refereeing brouhaha in the Carling Cup final defeat to Manchester United was the first big fuse-lighter. Then there was that 7-1 Premier League defeat at Chelsea, some electronic junk in the blogosphere that had him stomping out of Aston Villa and a spurt of adverse supporter comment about his supposed disinclination to rotate or give kids a chance.

The Aston Villa manager has crashed through the door to spring indignant. He is the man who wouldn’t take it any more. At the club’s Bodymoor Heath training ground a week ago O’Neill abandoned his usual self-deprecation to declare himself a “breath of fresh air” to the claret and blue half of Birmingham. He said he needed “to consider [his] value a wee bit more” and pointed out that the club’s American owner would immediately recover his £80m outlay on players should he ever need to sell the young talents the manager had brought to Villa Park.

Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea gave O’Neill the chance not only to avenge the savaging in west London 14 days earlier but to guide his men to a second Wembley final, this time against Portsmouth or Spurs, not Manchester United. He took to the coaching zone reinvigorated by the league win at Bolton and fielded his best Villa XI. All the top bucks were present: James Milner, Ashley Young, Gabriel Agbonlahor, Stewart Downing. The campaign still radiated promise.

Two hours later he steamed into the post-match press conference in a fury. And while many Chelsea supporters will dismiss his fulmination against Howard Webb, the referee, as another study in stress and disappointment, the disturbing truth is that O’Neill was correct on both counts. An FA Cup semi-final was disfigured by the main match official neglecting to apply the laws of the game: especially to John Terry, the Chelsea captain, who escaped with a yellow card for a brutal 73rd-minute lunge on Milner that O’Neill described as “horrendous”.

When a team doctor tells a manager one of the best young players in England “is a very lucky boy” who is “lucky his career is intact” (these are O’Neill’s words) you can see the depth of English football football’s problem with violent tackling. In a season in which Arsenal’s Aaron Ramsey had his leg mangled at Stoke, and Eduardo da Silva, another victim of limb-breaking force, has appeared a shadow of his former self, O’Neill was within his rights to expect Terry’s instant dismissal. Villa were only 1-0 down when Webb allowed Chelsea to continue with 11 men for 17 minutes.

His other gripe was less straightforward. The maladroit challenge by Mikel John Obi that brought down Agbonlahor in the Chelsea penalty area on 15 minutes was preceded by a tug from the Villa striker on the Chelsea midfielder’s shirt. Did Webb apply the principle that two wrongs make a non-event? Or did he “bottle” both decisions, as O’Neill alleges, thus proving that “consequences” are in the thoughts of England’s referees when they are deciding whether to award a penalty against a club of Chelsea’s power or send-off a household name?

This suspicion festers at many smaller Premier League clubs. Many think referees are cowed by big four influence. A hassle-free life requires Webb to go easy on Terry and not whistle for penalties against the Premier League leaders 15 minutes into matches. This is the spirit of O’Neill’s accusation.

For him, of course, another Wembley defeat in contentious circumstances was the worst possible follow-up to the 7-1 loss and the wave of truth-telling around the club. It also poked the hornet’s nest of his resentment over the Carling Cup final, when Phil Dowd awarded a penalty against Nemanja Vidic for a last-man foul on Agbonlahor but allowed him to stay on the pitch.

Recalling that moment, O’Neill says: “If somebody said to me, after four minutes of the game, you will get a penalty kick, and Manchester United will be reduced to 10 men, I’ll take my chance in the game, just to win the game, just to win it, to get over the line to win it. I knew that the minute the referee didn’t do the job – for fear, whatever it was – that Manchester United could overcome a one-nil deficit.”

When Webb said no to Villa’s fervent penalty appeal against Mikel, O’Neill, in the coaching zone, went into spasm. Rage gripped him. Finally he lowered himself to his haunches to calm down.

The bigger picture, naturally, is that he has rebuilt this Villa side as much as he may be allowed to. On Saturday he could deploy a fine midfield of Milner, Downing, Young and Stilian Petrov, but the limits on Villa’s ascent are all too visible, now that Randy Lerner, the owner, has reportedly lost the urge to spend.

Ungrateful fans, mischievous bloggers, a newly cautious owner, a gruelling battle to finish fourth in the Premier League and then a referee who shapes an FA Cup semi-final by “bottling” two big decisions. Fun job, managing Villa.

Martin O’NeillAston VillaFA CupRefereesPaul Haywardguardian.co.uk

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Apr 11

Martin O’Neill puts boot into John Terry and Howard Webb at Wembley

• Aston Villa manager attacks Terry over tackle on James Milner
• Webb failed to give penalty or send off Terry, O’Neill complains

James Milner has been England’s most improved graduate this season but Martin O’Neill said his young midfielder was “lucky his career is intact” after a challenge by John Terry that was described as “horrendous” by the Aston Villa manager after Chelsea’s 3-0 win in the first of this weekend’s FA Cup semi-finals.

Chelsea closed in on a league and FA Cup Double with goals from Didier Drogba, Florent Malouda and Frank Lampard, but a third Wembley final for Chelsea in four years is a footnote to one of the most far-ranging tirades against a match official in recent years. O’Neill’s first beef with Howard Webb was that a penalty and a red card for Mikel John Obi should have followed a foul on Gabriel Agbonlahor in the Chelsea penalty area. More important in another season of major injuries from violent tackling was O’Neill’s assertion that Chelsea’s former England captain should have been dismissed for a high, late lunge that could have broken Milner’s leg.

“I don’t know whether you’ve seen John Terry’s challenge. It’s horrendous. It’s horrendous for an England team-mate,” O’Neill said. “James Milner is exceptionally lucky his career’s intact. It’s a straight red card. It’s straight in front of him [Webb]. The referee’s right beside it [and] chooses to give him a yellow card.

“James is very sore and very, very lucky. We think he’s got away with it. His leg’s in the air at the time. If you see the challenge, the knee bends out. I’ve just spoken to my doctor and he says he’s a very lucky boy.”

Sensitivity to reckless tackling is still high in the aftermath of Aaron Ramsey’s gruesome leg-break in Arsenal’s recent game at Stoke. Terry’s leap qualifies as one of the season’s worst follow-throughs on a fellow pro, especially as the Chelsea centre-back’s slide took him nowhere near the ball. But O’Neill, who is still bitter about Phil Dowd’s decision not to dismiss Manchester United’s Nemanja Vidic for a last-man foul on Agbonlahor in the Carling Cup final, also raised the spectre of match officials favouring the biggest clubs and living in fear of the repercussions should they attempt to apply the laws to star players in showpiece games.

“The consequence of it all is in referees’ minds,” he said. “Apply the law, that’s all I’m looking for. A bit of fair play. There are decisions in matches we can all contest at different stages, it happens, I accept this, but these are incontestable decisions. It was a desperately poor challenge [by Terry] and it should have resulted in a red card, at 15 minutes to go with the score 1-0. Five weeks ago a referee bottled it completely against Manchester United. We’ve had the same today.”

Fabio Capello’s opinion on the Terry challenge is not known, but the England coach wore a deep frown as he studied Milner’s attempts to regain the perpendicular. Chelsea were about to seize the game with two goals in the last 12 minutes. Villa stopped them scoring seven this time – as Chelsea had at Stamford Bridge 14 days previously – but a measure of their superiority in the second half was that they were able to send on Salomon Kalou, Nicolas Anelka and Michael Ballack to close the deal.

“All the strikers are in good condition, all fit,” Carlo Ancelotti, the Chelsea coach, said. “Kalou played 20 minutes and played very well. For us that’s a very important thing. You can choose to put on a fresh player and have a very good option. We have confidence, we are motivated.”

There is an immutable law of the universe that says Drogba will force one in on this terrible pitch and now it falls to Spurs or Portsmouth to build a barricade in the final on 15 May. Only once in 15 years – when Pompey won in 2008 – has the FA Cup fallen to a club outside the cartel of Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool.

Priority No3, as the Cup might be known to the Premier League’s big four, now comes as part of a package. If a club of Chelsea’s scale need a couple of pots to disguise earlier disappointments, we hear retro talk of the Double, as if to win the English title and the world’s oldest knockout competition adds up to a champagne campaign.

Which it would, of course. Any team who clocked off in May with the Premier League’s urn and the Football Association Challenge Cup (to give it its full title) could hardly weep a river. Except that the Champions League has become the measure of all existence. By that criterion, Chelsea are condemned to seek compensation for their humbling by José Mourinho’s Internazionale. Terry hunted that recompense a little hard for O’Neill’s liking and now another England team-mate besides Wayne Bridge has a grudge to bear.

Martin O’NeillAston VillaJohn TerryChelseaFA CupRefereesPaul Haywardguardian.co.uk

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