Houllier Post Match + Injury Updates

Gerard Houllier told The Official Site that the only thing missing in the game v Chelsea was goals and added

'It was a good game of football with great pace and two good teams.'

He also admits it was a game of two halves where we had the better of the first, Chelsea were brighter in the second half.

'I would say it was a nice game to watch but also full of emotion because they hit the post, we hit the post and we had chances at the beginning and chances at the end.'

And on the absentees he explained Heskey hurt his back in training and Luke young pulled his hamstring. Marc Albrighton had a sickness bug.

Due to that we had to play some players who weren't quite match fit but the 90 minutes of football will have helped them as well, which explains why we did drop off a bit in the second half. 'I think at the end some of the players you could see were lacking a bit of match fitness. But it is getting better. I think we are getting nearer the 90 minutes - it will take time but we will get there. You see the physical level of Chelsea today - we had to compete with that. It is only the second time in eight games they have lost points.'

Finally on Richard Dunne who had to come off after 15 minutes (I sit by the bench, you could see Dunne was wanting to come back on but there was a tear in his socks and his foot was bleeding!) Houllier explained he needed stitches in his ankle.

'He wanted to come back on - I said to my staff I can't stay 10 minutes with only 10 men against Chelsea. We don't know with Emile - maybe Monday or Tuesday he will be ok. Today he couldn't play. Both he and Luke had a trial this morning and they couldn't play. This is not the type of game you can play if you are not 100 per cent.'

Houllier, Petrov, Ireland and Morley react to Chelsea draw on AVTV: Click Here

Official site match report by Dan Harrison: Click Here

Stats: Click Here
VIDEO: Ancelotti and Houllier post match: Click Here