Half-time: Chelsea 1 Aston Villa 1
Christian Benteke equalised for Aston Villa seconds before the half-time whistle at Stamford Bridge, where Chelsea went ahead courtesy of Antonio Luna’s own goal.
Jose Mourinho’s side dominated the opening stages with slick passing and movement, but got lucky for their sixth-minute opener.
Eden Hazard latched onto Oscar’s clever pass and after the Belgian’s shot was parried by keeper Brad Guzan the ball cannoned off the unfortunate Luna and into the net.
Villa, walloped 8-0 at the Bridge last season, defended resolutely for the rest of the half and had a decent spell of pressure of their own.
And they were rewarded when Gabriel Agbonlahor burst down the left and pulled the ball back for Benteke, who took a touch before firing past keeper Petr Cech.
Demba Ba replaced Fernando Torres in the Blues’ starting line-up, while the fit-again Juan Mata came in for Kevin De Bruyne.
Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Cech; Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, Cole; Ramires, Lampard; Oscar, Mata, Hazard; Ba.
Subs: Mikel, Schurrle, De Bruyne, Van Ginkel , Lukaku, Schwarzer, Azpilicueta.
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Pride of Lions
21/08/2013 @ 9:54 pm
No repeat of the 8-0 indeed with the Chelsea winner scored by a player who shouldn’t of been on the pitch and a blatant penalty denied, we were denied by a cheating “homer”…… Proud to be Villa.