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Villa 1-0 Chelsea - analysis

Perhaps it was, as Paul Lambert suggested, his team's finest hour since he came to Villa Park.

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Maybe it was touched by the fates evening out Villa's grievances from the Stamford Bridge contest way back in the August sunshine.

Is it possible that in Jose Mourinho, Lambert's players have actually found someone who finds it more difficult to win at Villa Park than they do?

Whatever the root cause of this footballing upset, everyone at the club should take a moment today to close their eyes, recall its assault on the senses and remember this is what football at Villa Park should be about.

Like a long lost but cherished old friend returning, the stadium was thundering in celebration of an epic and dramatic victory on Saturday evening and when the old place does that it is one of the domestic game's grandest experiences.

Lambert and Co haven't been able to orchestrate too many in their one-and-three-quarter seasons together. Yes, there was the defeat of Manchester City – and isn't it peculiar that this season's top two title challengers have now fallen at Villa Park – earlier this season but that was a freak of footballing nature.

On Saturday, Villa snared Chelsea good and proper; ran them to a standstill, rattled them into a loss of discipline before spearing the table leaders with a solitary late goal from Fabian Delph, a vibrant and deserving man of the match.

The explosive finale will have now been splashed over every back page and bulletin across the land. Mourinho, who has still to win at Villa Park in five visits, was sent to the stands in the final minute after marching on to the pitch to open peace talks with warring players and a referee struggling to control them.

Whether or not this was true only he will know but the picture of a frazzled and fractious Chelsea was complete. Already Ramires was on his way having been red carded for a studs-raised challenge on Karim El Ahmadi.

Chelsea's ire had been stoked by the 69th-minute sending-off of Willian following a second booking after he briefly tugged at the shoulder of Delph.

In many ways, those were keynote incidents which summed up the game – Chelsea drawn into rash acts of malevolence by the exuberant energy of the opposition.

But as the visitors retreated to deal with the after-shocks of a result they just did not see coming until it was too late to prevent, Villa were left assessing their brightest outlook of the season and, perhaps, for the future beyond.

Most obvious was the nine-point gap established between their welcome appearance in the top half of the table and the bottom three. The issue of survival has surely been banished from the 2014 prospectus.

But it was the rejoining of fans, manager and team in a display of shared delight which can prove of even greater value to the Lambert project's viability.

In the 14 months since that nightmare with Bradford City, Lambert's authority and the credibility of his team in general, and signings in particular, have been under relentless and critical scrutiny from a disgruntled public. At times, it has seemed as if only the beast that is Christian Benteke has kept the barricades intact from the revolution beyond.

But this performance and result has returned to the manager a vote of confidence from his public. Lambert felt sufficiently at ease to briefly stand before the Holte after the final whistle and offer his thanks for the rousing support; there have been times this season when he could not get out of their sight quick enough.

Most of all, it will be the impact this performance has on the confidence of a team which has so often seemed too fragile for the Premier League and certainly a club of Villa's status. They were outstanding to a man on Saturday.

At times, Villa were split into two unequal parts of eight and three as Benteke, Gabby Agbonlahor and Andi Weimann became distanced from the eight-man defiance at the other end of the pitch. But Lambert had declared his confidence in Villa's ability to "hurt" Mourinho's team and the potential for a goal from those forwards unhinged Chelsea throughout.

It was always Delph, however, who carried the ability to thread together the two elements of his team's performance which he did so memorably eight minutes from time in a link when his instinctive, back-heel finish from Marc Albrighton's pull-back shattered the decibel readings.

Delph might even have had a second, Cech diverting another shot on to the woodwork – but the acclaim at the finish was more than enough reward for Villa.

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