*Chelsea cruise past Villa*

Chelsea maintained the pressure on leaders Arsenal with a deserved victory over Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge.

Eidur Gudjohnsen fired Chelsea into a first-half lead after the hosts had survived a good period of Villa pressure.

And Frank Lampard made sure of all three points with a bizarre second after the interval that left Villa goalkeeper Peter Enckelman facing another appearance on Auntie’s Bloomers.

The win moves Claudio Ranieri’s men into second place, with Manchester United playing Blackburn on Sunday, and reaffirms Chelsea’s status as real challengers for the Premiership crown.

Gianfranco Zola was dropped from the Chelsea starting line-up for the first time in three months.

The Italian striker was at fault for the goal that sent his side crashing out of the Worthington Cup against Manchester United on Tuesday.

Zola’s absence gave Gudjohnsen the chance to rekindle his once prolific partnership with Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink.

That it took 42 minutes for Hasselbaink to set up the Icelandic forward for Chelsea’s opener said much about Villa’s first-half display.

Graham Taylor’s men had matched their London hosts in the early exchanges and Villa’s adventurous, attacking approach almost brought them a goal from the outset.

First Lee Hendrie’s goal-bound shot was deflected away by Graeme Le Saux and then Olof Mellberg struck the crossbar from the resulting corner with only a minute gone.

Mustapha Hadji, impressive against Liverpool, continued his improved form and caused Chelsea problems on the left.

The Moroccan also went close to giving Villa the lead, but he dragged his shot across the face of Carlo Cudicini’s goal

However, Gudjohnsen was unerringly accurate with his finish from a similar position and punished Villa for not capitalising on their early dominance.

If Villa were unlucky to be behind at the break, they could have no complaints about conceding soon after the interval.

Gudjohnsen was denied a second goal by a brilliant piece of agility from Enckelman, who somehow managed to deflect away the Chelsea striker’s effort with his body.

But the Villa goalkeeper was distracted by Gudjohnsen moments later.

Enckelman was guilty of watching the player rather than the ball as Lampard’s cross from the left evaded everyone and finished in the back of the net to end the game as a contest.