Ranieri has a lot to tink about

Aston Villa 3 Chelsea 2

Claudio Ranieri's latest tinkerings are unlikely to be one of the main subjects for discussion when the popular Chelsea coach discusses his future with chief executive Peter Kenyon tomorrow.

But Ranieri still remains in a strong bargaining position despite a disastrous Easter programme which saw his side earn only one point from two matches and drop out of the Premiership title race.

Chelsea now have a fight on their hands to hang on to second place and may have to rely on beating Manchester United at Old Trafford on 8 May.

United meanwhile, will move to within three points of the Stamford Bridge club if they beat Leicester tonight and will still have a game in hand.

One of the criticisms of Ranieri's style of management has been that he changes personnel too frequently and tries to keep everyone happy.

The Italian has largely answered that criticism by his team's results this season but the lack of continuity was again an issue at Aston Villa yesterday when the Chelsea coach made eight changes from the team which drew at home to Middlesbrough 48 hours earlier.

Despite taking an early lead from Hernan Crespo, Chelsea looked a largely disjointed and ineffectual outfit and the defeat ended any lingering hopes of catching Arsenal.

Ranieri's obsessive tinkering looks certain to be one of the items on the agenda tomorrow. For his part, Ranieri will want assurances about his continued future at Chelsea to head off reported interest in him by several Italian clubs.

Kenyon though, could be less enthusiastic about making any firm commitment at this time, preferring to wait until after Chelsea's Champions League semi-final against Monaco.

Ranieri is also unlikely to be impressed by any moves to appoint a head of football development to work alongside him, unless it is a person of his choice.

The Italian would appear to have things in his favour, with the vast majority of the Chelsea supporters firmly behind him. His stock couldn't be higher despite the team's disappointing Easter but he knows that could quickly change should they lose to Monaco over two legs and then be overtaken by Manchester United in the race for second place in the final Premiership table. Ranieri, meanwhile, today again defended himself against the charge that he over-tinkered, this time against Villa.

He said: "Maybe that criticism was right at the beginning of the season when they were not used to playing together. But since then I have made a rotation every three days.

"All of them are now used to playing together because I make a lot of changes." Ranieri obviously felt that, following the goalless draw at home to Middlesbrough, he needed to freshen up his team.

But he admitted: "We started well and scored the goal but after that the battled started. And in that battle, Villa were better than us. When I put in eight fresh players I thought that we could run more than Villa - but they were better than us."

One of those changes, midfield player Scott Parker, believes the match against United now takes on even greater significance.

He said: "We always knew that was going to be a massive challenge and now more so than ever.

"We are very disappointed because we couldn't wait for these two games. The Champions League win had given us a great buzz but there was a lot of emotion used up.

"We knew it was going to be tough against Villa. They played the long ball up to their big man up front. We knew it was going to be a battle and I suppose we did come out second best.

"We still have things in our own hands though. We want to win for the manager and for ourselves."

Apart from the first 15 minutes. Villa always had the bigger appetite for this contest, none more so than their tireless midfielder Gavin McCann, who was outstanding.

The home side also possessed a mobile set of scaffolding in the lanky form of former QPR striker Peter Crouch. The Rodney Trotter lookalike gave Robert Huth and John Terry an uncomfortable afternoon, although it all looked plain sailing early on when Crespo scored from close range after Adrian Mutu's header had hit an upright.

Villa equalised eight minutes before half-time when Mario Melchiot inexplicably climbed all over Gareth Barry in the box and Darius Vassell scored from the penalty spot.

Two goals in a three-minute spell early in the second half, from Lee Hendrie and Thomas Hitzlsperger, sealed Chelsea's fate although Crespo scored a majestic second goal in injury-time.

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