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*Chelsea struggle to victory*

Chelsea’s unbeaten start to the Premiership season continued as they struggled to victory against battling Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge.

Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink pierced Villa’s dogged resistance just before half-time to give Claudio Ranieri’s expensively-assembled side a vital - but undeserved - three points.

Villa boss David O’Leary was left cursing missed chances, with Colombian striker Juan Pablo Angel the main culprit.

Angel missed two glorious chances to snatch a point for Villa in the second half as a relieved Chelsea clung on in a desperate finale.

But Chelsea will regard it as a sign of their progress that they could claim the victory when they were so clearly out of sorts.

Chelsea boss Ranieri handed the striking berths to Hasselbaink and Adrian Mutu - but they had little joy in the first half against a resilient Villa.

Mutu had an acrobatic overhead kick blocked by Villa’s emergency centre-back Dion Dublin before the Romanian missed an easier opportunity from Frank Lampard’s pass.

Villa managed to keep Chelsea’s expensive stars at arm’s length, although Damien Duff broke the shackles to send a flashing drive narrowly wide.

Villa posed a threat of their own on the half hour when Ulises de la Cruz squared for Lee Hendrie to shoot narrorwly wide of the angle of post and crossbar.

De la Cruz himself then cut inside Wayne Bridge and fired just over.

Chelsea finally made the breakthrough after 43 minutes when Villa goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen could only parry Lampard’s shot and Hasselbaink was first to the rebound to score.

Villa wasted a glorious opportunity to equalise after 50 minutes as Chelsea continued to perform in lack-lustre fashion.

Lampard’s woeful pass wrong-footed his defence to leave Juan Pablo Angel with a clear run on goal.

The Colombian took his time and drew Carlo Cudicini, but then shot wastefully wide.

Ranieri decided to make a switch to shore up Chelsea’s lead, replacing Mutu with Jesper Gronkjaer and switching to a five-man midfield.

But Angel was the central figure again with only two minutes left when he was off target again when he had another chance only eight yards out.