Red Rash: Three sent off as Chelsea and Villa go crazy in Boxing Day thriller

The day they went berserk at the Bridge. Martin O'Neill accused Michael Ballack of diving and Gareth Barry scored a 92nd-minute equaliser for Aston Villa against Chelsea in a remarkable 4-4 Boxing Day bonanza that included eight goals, three red cards, two penalties and a Ricardo Carvalho apology.

Carvalho said he was sorry to Gabriel Agbonlahor for a two-footed lunge that earned the Portuguese defender a straight red card at Stamford Bridge. The referee Phil Dowd also sent off Zat Knight at the end of the first half and Ashley Cole in injury time at the end of the match both managers said they would appeal against those decisions.

It was a remarkable match in which Chelsea came from two goals behind to lead 3-2; Villa equalised and then Ballack gave Chelsea the lead again, 4-3, on 88 minutes before Barry's penalty levelled the game. Ashley Cole was sent off after Dowd judged him to have handled on the line. Chelsea claim that the defender headed the ball on to his shoulder and both clubs have until lunchtime today to appeal to the Football Association.

The pivotal moment of the game came on 44 minutes when, with Chelsea 2-0 down to two goals by Shaun Maloney, Ballack tangled with Knight in the area and Dowd gave a penalty. The Villa defender was sent off for what O'Neill implied was a theatrical fall from the German. "He went 'chup'," was O'Neill's precise analysis of Ballack's actions and the "chup" in question was accompanied by a hand movement that indicated the German had dived.

"There was no contact," said the Aston Villa manager. "He [Ballack] has gone over. I'm only three and a half per cent biased but it was not a penalty." With Villa down to 10 men, Andrei Shevchenko converted and added a second on 50 minutes to level the game. Villa appeared out of it when Alex da Costa scored a third to make it 3-2 but Martin Laursen claimed an unlikely equaliser.

Then came Carvalho's moment of madness: a two-footed lunge at Agbonlahor. Carvalho said: "It was never my intention to hurt Gabriel Agbonlahor with the tackle. I was going for the ball and I don't want people to think that I tried to hurt another player. I didn't see him after the game to apologise but I asked for a message to be passed on to him."

Ballack made it 4-3 from a disputed free-kick before Barry scored the penalty awarded for Cole's alleged handball. "It was not a penalty," Avram Grant said. "I saw it on TV but I cannot change it."