Joyous Chelsea back to winning ways

     
It was a balanced game against the visitor but the Blues capitalized on defensive blunder of Aston Villa to earn itself three points.

Diego Costa strike and an Alan Hutton own-goal nine minutes after break secured an important victory for chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

Willian had capitalised on a defensive mistake to tee up Diego Costa, who put the ball beyond Aston goalie for the first goal in first half.

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The second goal came early in the second half, and while there were chances to add a third – with Pedro and Diego Costa denied Chelsea were able to see the game out with minimal fuss.

Willian, fresh from scoring twice for Brazil in midweek, and Pedro, were tasked with supplying the creativity from wide areas, and a strong Chelsea bench included Gary Cahill,Nemanja Matic and Eden Hazard.

It was Loftus-Cheek, rather than Fabregas, deployed in the ‘number 10’ role, and the youngster was heavily involved in the action as we looked to gain an early advantage in the contest.

Within the opening couple of minutes an attempted threaded pass to Diego Costa was cut out, and moments later, following some fine work by Pedro down the left-hand side, his effort from 10 yards out was deflected behind by Micah Richards.

Carles Gil fired over the bar for the visitors after Terry had headed an Ashley Westwood free-kick away, and Asmir Begovic was called on for the first time soon after when he saved with his feet to deny Alan Hutton, who had got away from Baba, at the near post. The rebound fell invitingly for the Villa right-back but, snatching at it first-time, he drove it past the far post.

There was very little to choose between the sides during the opening 20 minutes as much of the game was being played out in the midfield area and real chances, at both ends, were proving hard to come by.

As Villa attempted to play the ball out from the back, Ramires produced a wonderful challenge to win it back and fed the Spanish midfielder. Fabregas, looking up, picked out the run of Diego Costa and intelligently lifted it into his path. The striker took one touch to bring it down before cutting back inside and, as he fired towards goal, the ball deflected off the foot of Hutton and looped over Guzan into the back of the net.

The second goal sparked us quickly into life and we began to move the ball around confidently in the attacking third as we looked to kill the game off.