Aston Villa 0 Chelsea 3: O'Neill calls for a Terry apology over horror tackle on Milner

Villa's boss was furious with Terry for the second-half lunge that caught Milner on the calf and led O'Neill to claim it was lucky the former Leeds United midfielder's "career is still intact".

Last night Terry had not spoken about the incident, although he would probably accept TV replays look fairly damning, even if he did not feel the tackle even merited the yellow card dished out by referee Howard Webb at the time.

O'Neill was certainly not happy. "I would hope there would be an apology sent to the dressing room," he said.

"I don't know whether an apology is enough. That would be something for James and John Terry to talk about. But it was desperately poor.

"I am just delighted James is still fit to play because he could have been out for a long time."

O'Neill's immediate fear was that Milner had suffered an injury that would wreck his hopes of making Fabio Capello's World Cup squad.

That he did not was probably due to his foot being off the floor when Terry drove his studs into the 24-year-old's left leg.

"James is very fortunate his foot was off the ground," said O'Neill. "Even that itself is not enough to save you all the time.

"Forget about the result. In two weeks' time it will be forgotten.

"I just want James to be fit to take his rightful place in the squad to go to South Africa."

O'Neill was also angry Howard Webb ruled John Obi Mikel had not fouled Gabriel Agbonlahor in the area, denying Villa both a penalty and the opportunity to play against 10 men.

Didier Drogba pounced in the 67th minute to put Chelsea in front and late goals from Florent Malouda and Frank Lampard ensured they remain in the hunt to become only the seventh English team to win both competitions in the same season.

Lampard, who believed Villa should have been awarded the spot-kick for Mikel's challenge, said: "We beat Villa 7-1 two weeks ago but fair play to them, they had a very positive reaction.

"We got away with the first half because I thought it was a penalty. We have had some important decisions in the Champions League that we didn't get, so I have some sympathy."

Aston Villa: Friedel, Cuellar, Dunne, Collins, Warnock, Ashley Young, Milner, Petrov, Downing, Agbonlahor, Carew (Heskey 82). Unused substitutes: Guzan, Luke Young, Sidwell, Delfouneso, Delph, Beye.

Chelsea: Cech, Paulo Ferreira, Terry, Alex, Zhirkov, Deco (Ballack 76), Mikel, Lampard, Joe Cole (Kalou 65), Drogba (Anelka 80), Malouda. Unused substitutes: Hilario, Ivanovic, Sturridge, Belletti.

Referee: H Webb (S Yorkshire)