Match Report: Chelsea FC 2-1 Aston Villa

Another League game at the bridge, another 3 points for Jose Mourinho’s team. Chelsea beat Aston Villa 2-0 in a match that was closely contested right to the stoppage time. Branslav Ivanovic was once again the goal hero for Chelsea as he banged in a powerful header to win us the game in the 2nd half. Luna had earlier scored an OWN goal after a brilliant curling effort by Eden Hazard was saved by Guzan. We now head into next Monday’s decisive fixture against Manchester United at Old trafford with 6 points and top of the league!
Match Stats:-
Possession- Chelsea 69% – Aston Villa 31%               Tackles Won (%)- 81% – 77%
Corners- Chelsea 1-4 Aston Villa                                    Clearances- 35 – 29
Off Sides- Chelsea 5-5 Aston Villa                                  Fouls Conceded- 13 – 16
Tackles- 16 – 13                                                                    Yellow Cards- 1 – 4
Teams: 
Chelsea: Cech, Cole, Ivanovic, Terry(C), Cahill, Oscar(84), Lampard, Ramires, Mata(65′), Hazard, Demba Ba(65′)
SUBS: Azpilicueta, Schwarzer, van Ginkel(84), Mikel, Schürrle, Lukaku(65′), De Bruyne
Goal Scorers: Luna(O.G.) 6′ and Ivanovic 73′
Aston Villa: Guzan, Clark(43′), Vlaar, Lowton, Luna, El Ahmadi(82′), Delph, Westwood, Agbonlahor, Benteke, Weimann
SUBS: Okore(43′), Tonev(82′), Steer, Sylla, Bennett, Bacuna, Helenius
Goal Scorers: Benteke 45+3′
Summary
Chelsea maintained its 100 percent record in the Premier League with a hard-fought 2-1 win over Aston Villa on Wednesday evening. Jose Mourinho had previously gone four Premier League games without registering a victory over Villa, but he finally bucked that trend at Stamford Bridge courtesy of Branislav Ivanovic’s thumping header.
Chelsea made a flying start when Antonio Luna inadvertently scored past his own goalkeeper before Christian Benteke leveled proceedings on the stroke of halftime. And it looked like the home side would be frustrated until Ivanovic met Frank Lampard’s free-kick with 17 minutes remaining. Mourinho made two changes to the Chelsea team that beat Hull City on Sunday, with Juan Mata and Demba Ba replacing Kevin De Bruyne and Fernando Torres, the Spaniard omitted from the squad altogether. Paul Lambert had to make one enforced change from the Villa side that opened with a win against Arsenal on Saturday, as Ciaran Clark came in for the injured Nathan Baker.
Chelsea started with plenty of intent and caused the Villa backline plenty of trouble, and the Blues were rewarded with the breakthrough after just six minutes. Oscar threaded a through-ball into the path of Eden Hazard on the left-hand side of the box and his curling effort was saved by Brad Guzan only to unluckily rebound off Luna and into the back of the net.
After Chelsea got a goal from Luna’s own goal, Aston Villa looked to threaten by attacking with full force but, where stopped by a resilient Chelsea defense. Our players from the back started to send long balls to Ba but, he didn’t manage to take a single shot on goal as he was judged off side 3 times in the first half only.
But, right at the half time stoppage, Benteke took advantage of a big space made by Terry and Cahill’s positioning to equalize right before half time.
Second half began and Chelsea looked to have more position and kill of the game early by scoring a winner. But, despite having many chances to score Chelsea only found the back of the net when Ivanovic scored a powerful header from Frank Lampard’s free kick to put us one up above the visitors.
The 2nd half double changes from Mourinho on the 65 minutes made huge impact as Schurlle and Lukaku looked more potent and dangerous upfront than Mata, who was playing uncomfortable in wider position and Demba Ba who was not effective for much of the game.
But, after all the hurdles and a close much on scoreline, Chelsea deservedly got the 3 precious points that puts us on top of the league table by 6 points till we play Man Utd on Monday night at Old Trafford.
Leave your comments and opinions on this match and what you thought of the performance put on by the players. Cheers and follow me @FahmiCFC on twitter!