*Taylor makes his point for bravery*

Graham Taylor OBE, as he was reintroduced to an adoring crowd, detests one word above all others. It is neither turnip nor Koeman he cannot bear but coward. And as Aston Villa’s returning manager waded through 20 photographers to salute an exultant Holte End at 2.58pm on Saturday, no one could call him that.

Staying in his non-executive director role at Villa would have been the easy option. Yet here was Taylor, coming out of retirement and risking his reputation at the club he led to second in the top flight in 1990. Yes, he admits, there may be an element of ego-feeding in his decision to take the post. But cowardice? Certainly not.

Since his reign with England turned sour, Taylor has been subjected to almost every conceivable insult. He knows if he fails he will be derided again, dismissed as “yesterday’s man” and told he “should not have come back”. But does he not like that? Far from it.

“People can call me whatever they want to call me,” he said. “I would have accused myself of not having the guts if I hadn’t taken it. I thought: ‘Don’t tell me you don’t have the bollocks to do this job.’”

He will have to be shrewd and patient. A game Chelsea should have won confirmed Villa have some way to go before they can contemplate another runner-up finish.

They are too reliant on Paul Merson for creativity, lack a dominant central midfielder and require greater scoring threat. Only late misses by Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Mikael Forssell prevented defeat. Yet the welcome the home fans afforded a smiling Taylor suggested he will be given a lengthy second honeymoon.

His appointment appears to have at least partially healed divisions within the club. There were protests against Doug Ellis outside the ground but not a murmur was audible against the chairman inside. “Get behind the Villa for 90 minutes,” read one banner.

If Taylor was subdued in the dugout, he looked to be relishing his return when he chatted later. The 57-year-old jokes that his biggest achievement in management was avoiding Ellis’s axe. “He didn’t sack me the first time,” he said. “Let’s give him a second chance.”

There was no mistaking Taylor’s mark on an unchanged team. Villa looked to play at a quicker tempo and stationed Mustapha Hadji almost on the right touchline. From John Barnes to Lee Sharpe, via Tony Daley, Taylor has always been fond of width.

A dreadful pitch made slick passing difficult and Taylor was unfortunate to lose Olof Mellberg with a groin strain at half-time, forcing the centre-half’s withdrawal from Sweden’s friendly against Greece on Wednesday.

Villa’s best moments invariably arrived via the craft of Merson or the burst and bustle of Darius Vassell, watched by Sven-Goran Eriksson and called into the England squad.

Merson put Villa ahead from Vassell’s run and cross and had their only other meaningful effort. Chelsea needed Gianfranco Zola to spark into life, his first touch helping to set up an equaliser from Frank Lampard.

A draw hardly enhanced Chelsea’s hopes of Champions League qualification and Claudio Ranieri suffered a further blow as John Terry departed with a suspected fractured foot, on which an x-ray was due yesterday.

Ranieri has 12 games in which to force Chelsea into the top four and would do well to gamble on Zola behind Eidur Gudjohnsen and Hasselbaink.

“I just hope Franco stays next year,” said Lampard, who scored after Hasselbaink headed Zola’s chip into his path. The midfielder added that the squad held a meeting the week before last, looked at the table and decided it was time to “roll up our sleeves”.

Hasselbaink and Forssell should have provided a third successive late victory but the script demanded otherwise. If Taylor continues to attract near-full houses, valuable revenue will accrue. Having taken the job, his real work starts now.