Villa lose successive games for the first time since September as they are beaten at Stamford Bridge.

It's also a second successive game of bizarre refereeing decisions - although the antics of referee Vickery are far less controversial than referee Salmon's a week earlier.

Vickery decides the game should go ahead despite thick fog enveloping the ground and pitch and makes the even more odd decision that bringing kick off forward by five minutes will somehow alleviate the weather conditions. 

That gates were delayed opening at his behest and spectactors were only allowed to enter at 1.45pm appears to pass the Bristol official by completely.

To the surprise of no-one - presumably except the referee - the conditions worsened and there was unanimous expectation that the game would, and should, be abandoned.

Vickery however revealed he felt that would be "unfair" to Chelsea as they were leading and forced the fixture to reach its conclusion in conditions of zero visibility.

As a contemporary match report had it: "it was farcical".

A second successive referee inspired defeat leaves Villa in joint 19th with 13 points now level with Huddersfield and Sheffield United and one point above bottom club Preston. Everton are now a point ahead of Villa following another win for the merseysiders.