Costa inspires Chelsea to victory over Villa

Chelsea 2 Aston Villa 0

Diego Costa’s return from suspension inspired Chelsea back to winning ways.

The Spain striker opened the scoring on 34 minutes after Willian had seized on a dreadful error at the back from Aston Villa’s Joleon Lescott.

And early in the second half, Costa created Chelsea’s second when his attempted square ball hit the heel of Villa’s Alan Hutton and beat keeper Brad Guzan.

The win justified he five changes boss Jose Mourinho made to the side that lost to Southampton.

Eden Hazard and Gary Cahill were both dropped to the bench, with Baba Rahman and Ruben Loftus-Cheek handed starts.

Initially, Villa were on the front foot with Hutton forcing Blues keeper Asmir Begovic into a block at the near post and Jordan Ayew just clearing the bar with a free-kick.

And Ayew created the visitors’ best chance when he squared for Rudy Gestede, who beat John Terry to the ball but spooned it over the bar.

But Villa, who have not won since the opening day of the season, imploded to hand Chelsea the lead.

Guzan’s pass to Lescott was unhelpful but the former England defender’s poor control let in Willian, and he left Costa with the simplest of finishes.

On 54 minutes it was 2-0 as Cesc Fabregas found Costa and when he tried to set up a colleague, the heel of Hutton turned it in.

Costa could have had a third but wastefully headed into the ground and into Guzan’s hands after another beautiful pass from Fabregas.