Chelsea defeated Aston Villa 2-1 with goals from Eden Hazard and Branislav Ivanovic, despite a slight scare from Villa when Jores Okore equalised minutes into the second-half.

After dominating much of the early proceedings, Chelsea's early domination was quickly reflected by the score as Oscar cut a ball back for his fellow Brazilian international Willian, who then fed the ball to Hazard to finish off the move by putting the ball into the back of the net.

It seemed that the season was continuing to look bleak for Paul Lambert and his Villa side as the goal was the result of Chelsea's first attack.

On the other hand, there was some hope for Villa as Thibaut Courtois was having a nervous display early on, unable to catch certain crosses which he usually would in previous dominant displays this season.

22 minutes in, it should have been two for Chelsea but Brad Guzan denied Oscar with a brilliant save from the Brazilian's powerful effort after latching onto a Nemanja Matic pass.

A minute later, Chelsea had cause for a penalty appeal as replays showed that a goal-bound Gary Cahill header took a deflection off the arm of Aly Cissokho and the ball was then comfortably caught by Guzan.

Villa looked a real threat on the break causing Chelsea some minor problems prior to the half-time whistle, despite Chelsea dominanting even with quite a poor display.

Lambert's side took that late momentum built-up towards the end of the first-half into the second-half with brilliant offensive play, which led to them finding an equaliser and their first goal in over ten hours of play. Arguably Villa's best player - Carlos Gil - found a space for a cross that was met at the back-post by an unmarked Jores Okore to head into the back of the net.

Villa's lead didn't last long though, due to some scrappy defending by goalscorer Okore failing to clear the ball, letting Cesar Azpilicueta find fellow full-back Ivanovic who hit a thunderous left-footed volley into the top corner.

Even with Chelsea dominanting, Villa were still looking for an equaliser and were bringing on more offensive options in Scott Sinclair and Christian Benteke, but Jose Mourinho's side were looking to strong as they opted to bring on John Obi Mikel for Oscar in an attempt to close out the game.

Mourinho also gave a deubt to substitute Juan Cuadrado who recently made the switch to Chelsea from Fiorentina for £23 million following the departures of Andre Schurrle (permanent) and Mohamed Salah (loan).

However, Villa could not find a way past this compact Chelsea side as Mourinho's side claimed all three points to take a seven-point lead ahead of second-placed Manchester City, who drew 1-1 against Hull at the Etihad Stadium.

Aston Villa (1) Chelsea (2)
Guzan 6 Courtois 6
Hutton 7 Ivanovic 7
Okore 7 Cahill 7
Clark 7 Terry 6
Cissokho 6 Azpilicueta 7
Westwood 6 Ramires 6
Cleverley 6 Matic 7
Delph 6 Willian 7
Weimann 6 Oscar 6
Agbonlahor 6 Hazard 8
Gil 7 Drogba 6
Remplaçants
Benteke 6 Remy 6
Sinclair 6 Mikel 6
Cole 6 Cuadrado 6