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Chelsea rue missed chance in Villa stalemate

Carlo Ancelotti missed a golden opportunity to pile on the misery for Sir Alex Ferguson as Chelsea were held to a 0-0 draw At Villa Park on Saturday.

The rampaging Premier League leaders had the chance to send a chilling warning to Old Trafford — just hours after United squandered more points at in front of their own fans.

But Ancelotti’s Blues were unable to punish the carelessness of their main title rivals and departed Villa Park after extending their poor run to just one win in their last 12 visits.

Nicolas Anelka will spend the majority of the next 48 hours — ahead of the Champions League tie with Spartak Moscow — wondering how he failed to stretch Chelsea’s lead at the top to seven points.

The French striker somehow sent a downward header from Ashley Cole’s cross over the bar from six yards and that summed up a disappointing day for the double winners.

Villa manager Gerard Houllier’s plans to upset his good friend Ancelotti were ruined by Emile Heskey’s calf injury 24 hours before kick-off.

Much of the French manager’s battle plan centred around using the retired England striker — who he believes can be Villa’s own version of Chelsea’s absent Ivorian talisman Didier Drogba.

With Heskey unfit and Drogba suffering from a virus, both sides lacked that extra menace in crucial areas and Villa’s loss of young England winger Marc Albrighton, also to a virus, also did little to help their chances of extending their excellent record on home soil against the double winners.

Albrighton’s loss was Stephen Ireland’s gain and the Republic of Ireland international was given the two best opportunities of an opening 45 minutes in which Villa fractionally held the upper hand.

Chelsea had kicked off four points clear at the top of the table, but without the physical presence of Drogba and the goals of Frank Lampard they do not appear the same scary prospect.

They could easily have been two goals behind at the interval. Ireland clipped one shot from inside the area beyond Petr Cech and wide of the far post after Stewart Downing’s burst of speed and pin-point pass set up the opening.

And on the verge of the interval, Stiliyan Petrov stumbled into the Chelsea box and pulled the ball back for Ireland to unleash a venomous effort which Branislav Ivanovic threw himself at to block.

Ancelotti maybe had one eye on the trip to Russia to face Spartak Moscow when he removed Ramires in the second half for young Josh McEachran, but Chelsea were well short of ideas by that stage.

They were very nearly rescued from another disappointing visit to Villa Park when the woodwork prevented them from taking the lead 13 minutes from time.

Ivanovic sent a header smashing into the post from Florent Malouda’s corner with Brad Friedel well beaten, but it would have been harsh on Villa.

They were denied a potential winner of their own moments later when Ashley Young’s free-kick was fizzed into the penalty area and was glanced on by Ciaran Clark beyond Cech, only to bounce back off the post.