Diego Costa produced a match-winning performance for Chelsea on his return to the first team as the Blues beat Aston Villa 2-0 at Stamford Bridge this afternoon.
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Jose Mourinho's charges were the ones looking to set the tempo early on, but their opponents got away the first shot of note when Carles Gil fired over the bar at the end of a free kick.
A much-changed Chelsea side, without the likes of Nemanja Matic, Gary Cahill or Eden Hazard from the off this afternoon, themselves pushed forward and got in an attempt of their own through Ruben Loftus-Cheek on his first start of the season.
One of those to benefit from the first-team overhaul, Baba Rahman, was then overpowered by Alan Hutton down the flank which allowed the Scotsman to drill in a shot which Asmir Begovic kept out, before the rebound was was fired wide.
Villa were looking more confident at this stage, and came forward once more in a move that culminated in Rudy Gestede picking out Jack Grealish to drill in a rather tame shot on goal.
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Summer signing Jordan Ayew then tried his luck, sending a free kick narrowly over the target, before Ramires fired a set-piece attempt of his own straight into the wall up the other end.
Just after seeing the Villans squander arguably the best opening of the game through Gestede's headed chance, Chelsea were able to capitalise on a sloppy piece of play at the back from their opponents to make the breakthrough in West London.
Brad Guzan's poor pass to Joleon Lescott was cut out by Willian, who simply picked out the returning Diego Costa to tap home from close range.
Buoyed by that, Willian had another pop at goal with a curled effort that Guzan had less trouble with on this occasion, while Kieran Westwood and Grealish could not truly trouble Begovic as the visitors upped the ante.
Costa wanted a penalty at the end of the opening 45 minutes, but the officials adjudged that Kieran Richardson made little contact on the Spain international inside the box.
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Villa, with just the one point to their name since the opening day, showed some more attacking intent in the early stages of the second period through star man Grealish, but their hopes of getting anything out of the game were dented 54 minutes in.
Costa is the man who claimed the Blues' all-important second goal, having cut inside and fired away on his right foot, yet he had a huge deflection off Hutton to thank for wrong-footing Guzan between the sticks.
Pedro and an up-for-it Costa both saw chances to bag a third goal come and go before the hour mark, and the profligacy could have proved more costly had Lescott's close-range strike not been blocked aside by Cesar Azpilicueta with 20 minutes still left to play.
Still Villa looked to put some pressure on their previously fragile opponents, with Gestede sending another header narrowly over the bar when he perhaps should have done better, but Mourinho's men also created some openings of their own late on.
There was to be no further goalmouth action, however, meaning that Aston Villa remain in serious trouble inside the bottom three, with the pressure continuing to mount on boss Tim Sherwood.
It is just a third Premier League victory of the season for the hosts, who close in on a place in the top half of the table as a result of their hard-fought win.
Daniel Lewis
