Tore Andre Flo kept Chelsea's title flame flickering and sent Aston Villa
crashing to their eighth defeat in nine games.
Flo put the Blues in front on 59 minutes, latching on to Albert Ferrer's long
pass and beating Gareth Southgate before firing past Mark Bosnich.
The Norwegian then turned provider four minutes from time, his ball enabling
Bjarne Goldbaek to shoot home from 12 yards.
And Flo, who scored against Valerenga in the Cup Winners' Cup on Thursday, put
the icing on the cake in the 90th minute when he got on the end of Jody Morris'
pass and rounded Bosnich before sidefooting into an empty net for his 11th goal
of the season.
In truth, Chelsea could have won by even more, poor finishing and a fine
display by Bosnich keeping the score respectable.
But any sort of victory will have been welcomed by the Londoners, who have
leapfrogged Leeds to move back up to third and needed all three points today to
hang on to the coat tails of Manchester United and Arsenal.
After last Saturday's defeat to West Ham, Stamford Bridge manager Gianluca
Vialli conceded his side could not lift the title, though he revised his
assessment of that situation during the week.
And though they still need to make up a lot of ground on the top two, this
triumph at least keeps Chelsea's hopes alive.
Villa, though, have long since given up on their hopes of winning the
Premiership - and even the possibility of not qualifying for the UEFA Cup next
season is looming large over Villa Park.
That was inconceivable when the Midlanders led the League at the start of
January but they now lie sixth and have to arrest their slide quickly if they
are to have any chance of playing in Europe.
Villa could try to use the unusually early kick-off time of 11.30am as an
excuse for their lethargic first-half performance, the Midlanders struggling to
string more than a couple of passes together on the rare occasions they won
possession.
But the real reasons for their dire display may have more to do with their
nightmare recent run of results.
However, for all the hosts' nervousness in defence and lack of penetration in
attack, Chelsea found it difficult to make their dominance tell in the early
stages.
Bosnich, making only his third start since recovering from a shoulder injury
which kept him out for five months, pulled off a handful of top stops to keep
Villa in touch in the first half.
He denied Gianfranco Zola on two occasions, the second time scrambling across
to his left to palm a deflected drive wide.
But the Australian's best save of the opening period came on 15 minutes when
he blocked Flo's shot with his feet after the striker had been released by
Goldbaek.
Villa did not take heed of those early warnings and were still as sloppy and
off the pace as they had been from the start.
That it took Chelsea 59 minutes to take the lead was perhaps the biggest
surprise of the day, though they then wasted several opportunities to increase
their advantage.
Bosnich saved Gareth Barry's blushes when he saved from Zola after the young
defender's pass had gone straight to the Italian 35 yards out.
Flo lobbed another effort wide after being found by Graeme Le Saux before
Julian Joachim wasted Villa's best chance, lobbing wide after intercepting
Marcel Desailly's back pass.
Bosnich pulled off a flying save to deny Zola again but Chelsea were not to be
denied and their late brace ensured Villa were booed off by the majority of the
39,217 fans.
Teams
Aston Villa: Bosnich, Watson, Southgate, Barry, Wright, Stone,
Hendrie (Taylor 83), Scimeca, Thompson, Collymore (Joachim 74),
Dublin (Merson 74).
Subs Not Used: Draper, Oakes.
Booked: Thompson.
Chelsea: De Goey, Ferrer, Le Saux, Desailly, Leboeuf,
Petrescu (Lambourde 79), Goldbaek, Wise, Morris,Flo (Nicholls 90), Zola.
Subs Not Used: Duberry, Newton, Hitchcock.
Booked: Ferrer, Desailly, Wise.
Goals: Flo 59, Goldbaek 86, Flo 90.
Att: 39,217
Ref: G Barber (Pyrford).
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