By Ryan Ghee
September 24 2005

David O'Leary's men put on a brave performance at Stamford Bridge this afternoon but were eventually denied by two goals from England international Frank Lampard. The match was a lot tighter than many had anticipated and despite losing the match, The Villans did manage to do something that all of Chelsea's previous opponents have failed to do so far this season - score a goal.

The match got off to a slow start as neither keeper was called into action until the eighth minute when Thomas Sorensen was on hand to deal with Michael Essien's powerful low drive.

Chelsea continued to dominate the early proceedings but solid defending from Villa ensured that the current Premiership Champions could not get a clear shot at Sorensen's goal.

The home side finally started to break down the Villa defence on the half-hour mark but Duff wasted two good chances as he fired wide of the upright on both occasions.

With 44 minutes on the clock, Aston Villa became the first team to score a league goal past Chelsea this season. After a long ball from Sorensen and a flick-on from Angel, Luke Moore got around the back of the Chelsea defence and fired past Petr Cech.

However, Villa's lead only lasted a matter of seconds. Immediately after conceding the goal, the home side raced to other end of the field and won a free-kick right on the edge of the Villa box. Frank Lampard stepped up and curled the ball into the the bottom corner to ensure that the two teams went in at half-time on level terms.

Chelsea started the second-half brightly as Gallas headed over on 50 minutes and Terry failed to find the target with a header of his own three minutes later.

Juan Pablo Angel almost gave Villa the lead against the run of play ten minutes into the second half but his powerful effort flew inches wide of the Chelsea goal.

The last thirty minutes were largely dominated by Chelsea as Sorensen was called into action several times. The Danish stopper denied Wright-Phillips on the hour-mark and then tipped Duff's long-range effort over the bar ten minutes later.

The Villa resistance was breached with only fifteen minutes of the match remaining when Olof Mellberg hauled down Didier Drogba inside the penalty area. Frank Lampard stepped up from 12 yards and, despite going the right way, Sorensen couldn't prevent the midfielder from scoring his second goal of the game.

The Villans did push on for an equaliser in the final ten minutes but the closest they came was when Milner curled his free-kick into the arms of Petr Cech. Despite having lots of possession in the closing stages, Villa couldn't break down the Chelsea defence and were forced to accept a 2-1 defeat to the defending Premiership champions.