Chelsea Complete Double Over The Villa

The same two scorers from our two-legged duel with Liverfools delivered the goals as Chelsea narrowly overcame struggling Aston Villa. In between accurate efforts from the ever-reliable duo of Hazard and Ivanovic was a collector's item - a goal for the notoriously goal shy hosts. However the equaliser shortly after the interval only served to galvanise the league leaders, and big Ivanovic duly obliged with a left-footed strike.

The Serbian maestro has now scored five goals in his last six Premier League starts against Aston Villa. In the process Chelsea recorded a rare league double over the dastardly Villa who frequently take at least one point off the Blues each season.

It was good to see our new recruit Juan Cuadrado given some time to perform a late cameo. Hopefully he will prove to his ever-cautious boss that he is worthy of a starting-place in due course. Mind you, he will have to dislodge the consistent Willian. The Brazilian who still remains much too inaccurate in front of goal did merit a place in Garth Crooks's team of the week alongside John Terry and unsurprisingly Mr Ivanovic. Well done to them.

It was a little bizarre to find the heroes of last week, Monsieur Remy and his young compatriot Kurt Zouma being discarded for this fixture. Surely they should be rewarded for playing well. Maybe Jose is holding them back for the visit of Everton on Wednesday night. I think that our win against the Merseysiders back in late August still represents one of the highlights of our season. However, the Toffees will be awkward opponents, with big Lukaku determined to make an impression against his former employees. I take the same view as Mourinho that there are no easy matches in the Premiership, and the visit of the blue half of Liverpoor is no exception. Jose stated that he was not surprised that the champions, Manchester Mercenaries, should drop points at home to struggling Hull City. Therefore, it is important that he reminds his team not to squander their now healthy seven-point advantage by approaching the Everton tussle with any hint of complacency. The narrow win at relegation-strugglers Aston Villa is a reminder that some wins are easier predicted than actually achieved.

The pundits are queuing up to crown Chelsea as kings of England, which is all rather nice, but until that happy day when it is mathematically impossible for Chelsea to be overtaken, then I remain a little nervous about our apparent title procession. Misfiring Manchester Wannabes did win their two recent Premierships by coming from behind. Still it's good to be seven points in front than seven points behind.  

Aston Villa 1 CHELSEA 2; half time: 0-1. Saturday 7th February 2015.

CHELSEA goal scorers: Hazard; Ivanovic

CHELSEA team: Courtois, Ivanovic, Terry, Cahill, Azpilicueta, Matic, Ramires, Oscar, Willian, Drogba, Hazard. Used substitutes: Remy; Mikel; Cuadrado.

CHELSEA LEADING SCORERS:

Costa - 17 goals

Hazard - 13 goals

Oscar - 7 goals

Drogba - 6 goals

Remy, Schurrle and Terry - 5 goals

Fabregas and Ivanovic - 4 goals

Matic, Ramires, and Willian - 3 goals

Cahill and Zouma - 2 goals