Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert praised Christian Benteke after the Chelsea match and he has said that the team definitely missed him in the second half. The Belgian striker scored the first goal in the match to surprise the visitors, who were chasing a Champions League spot. He proved to be a major thorn for the opposition, as they found it difficult to contain his pace and power. The goal against Chelsea was his 23rd of the season, with 20 of those coming in the league. He was signed for just £ 7 million in the summer, which is proving to be a bargain.
Frank Lampard, though, scored two goals in the second half to send Chelsea to a victory, which almost sealed a Champions League spot for the team. The big decision came in the second half when the referee sent off Christian Benteke for his second yellow card. However, Villa manager Lambert has said that he will not be toning down his striker, who has been hugely influential. As a result of the red card, Benteke will miss the final match of the season against Wigan. Villa appear to be relatively safe, although it could be confirmed if Wigan are defeated against Arsenal in the midweek action.
“No. I won’t curtail that. The ‘Big ‘Un’ takes some himself, he’s not a shrinking violet, that’s for sure. If you take that away from really good players you lose a bit of them. We’ll miss him, but we’ve got to go there full of confidence with the way we are playing. We’ve got to just pick ourselves up and go again,” said Lambert. Villa are currently 16th in the table after 37 matches. The team have 40 points on the board and they have 2 wins in the last 5 matches.