Chelsea 2-0 Aston Villa

Chelsea stay top of the Premier League after goals from Joe Cole and Nicolas Anelka handed them a comfortable win over Aston Villa.

Prior to kick-off, this game was billed as a top of the table clash but with Chelsea being so dominant - it didn't seem like one. The home team were the better side throughout and almost opened the scoring as early as the fifth minute when Michael Ballack forced an excellent save from Brad Friedel.

Villa were having a fair amount of possession early on, but failed to create too much while Chelsea always looked the more likely to score. Then, after 21 minutes, they did just that. A typical passing move ended when Frank Lampard found Joe Cole who controlled the ball before firing it into the back of the net.

Chelsea turned it up a gear after this and almost doubled their lead soon after through debutant Branislav Ivanovic who headed over from a Lampard corner. Despite the game settling down somewhat, Chelsea used patient build up play as they continued to boss proceedings.

A significant spell of pressure eventually resulted in Nicolas Anelka making it 2-0 when he reacted first to a Freidel save to slot the ball home.

Two Villa substitutions at half-time did little to effect the outcome as Chelsea treated the second period as a training match at times.

Lampard was pulling all the strings in the centre of midfield with too many Villa players under performing. Injuries to Anelka and Joe Cole will worry Chelsea, but despite the changes they were forced to make they held on to the win and made it 28 games without defeat in the Premier League.