Chelsea checked!

BRIAN LITTLE, the Aston Villa manager, wore the look of a relieved man. He was reflecting on the moment just before halftime that Chelsea scored their equalising goal and described it as potentially decisive.

In the event, Chelsea were denied the victory that would have put them on top of the FA Carling Premiership and had to settle for a draw.

It was a just enough result after an excellent first half and a second half that faded away in the bright sunshine at Stamford Bridge.

Little admitted that Chelsea's goal, put in on the blind side by Leboeuf, from Petrescu's curling pass, suddenly put his team under pressure. "You've got to come through that," he said, "and we were pleased to come through but disappointed in the way we gave the ball away.

"In the first half, we did well and I was pleased with that. In the second half we gave it away too much for my liking. We had a good first touch, but we were sloppy with our second ball. We stopped it too often instead of keeping the ball moving. Because of that, they kept us in our own half."

Significantly, Chelsea's manager, Ruud Gullit, still postponing his own, much awaited return to the field. changed his strategy after the interval. Johnsen, who was injured, came off and in his place, Gullit boldly sent on Jodie Morris, 17, a little, natural inside forward, whose confidence grows game by game.

Switching his team's formation from 3-5-2 to 4-4-2, Gullit encouragingly showed that, unlike his predecessor, he makes neither a fetish nor a panacea of tactics.

Little, for his part, told his own team: "It may be a compliment that the team said to be better than you at the system you're playing had to change."

Villa did not change theirs, which worked pretty well defensively throughout the game.

Little was "most pleased with Steve Staunton. He gave us a dimension down the left, but in the second half, when we were under pressure he hung in there."

Villa played much attractive and progressive football in their first half, but it was a set-piece that brought them their goal in the 18th minute. Curcic was brought down just outside the penalty box by Burley.

Cunningly, Yorke touched it to Townsend, the former Chelsea player, whose left foot shot soared into the far top corner, Hitchcock reaching it but failing to stop it.

Hitchcock, however, had several distinguished moments in Chelsea's goal.

As early as the seventh minute, he saved a point blank header by Milosovic. On the half-hour, Curcic, working a one-two with Draper, darted through the Chelsea defence, only for Hitchcock to save again. Then, 18 minutes into the second half, when Nelson latched on to a half-cleared corner to fire in a shot, Hitchcock blocked it; though he must surely have seen the ball late.