Chelsea dispatched otherwise unbeaten Aston Villa 3-0 this afternoon at the Bridge with Diego Costa cementing his place in Chelsea fans' hearts.
The Spain hitman has now scored eight goals in six league games this season.
Costa's second half goal was the sandwich in between Oscar's seventh minute effort and Willian's tap in 10 minutes from time.
The Blues retain top spot in the Premier League, three points ahead of South Coast surprise package Southampton.
The early exchanges almost immediately showed the intent by both side, Chelsea to build attack from possession play, Villa to attack solely on the counter.
And it was from one such clever move, started from Branislav Ivanovic, in seven minutes that broke the deadlock. the Serbia defender produced a fine low, curling ball. To in-running Willian. the Brazil midfielder took a first time shot, from an acute angle on the right, which Brad Guzan Di well to patty away to his left. but Willian was quickest to the byline ball, and he cut it back into the path of Oscar who drove a smart low, right-footer across the path of prone Guzan and into the bottom, right hand corner of his net.
A beautiful back-heel flick by Diego Costa on 15 minutes sent Willian clear on goal. Nathan Baker did well to track Willian and was on hand to deflect his left foot shot into the side-netting to prevent the Blues going two up.
A Cesc Fabregas sliced effort from just outside Villa penalty area inched wide while Costa had an excellent glancing header well saved from Guzan as Chelsea turned the screw on the third-placed and unbeaten Villa.
Neither side made any changes at half time, and the first effort on goal came from the visitors through Midfielder Fabian Delph, two minutes in.The England player zig-zagged past Eden Hazard and Fabregas before zipping a 25-yarder, that, although wide of Thibaut Courtois goal, still gave the Belgium stopper a moment's unease.
Baker out jumped Gary Cahill from a free-kick on 55 minutes. The inability of the Chelsea rearguard to defend from set pieces have been a feature this season.
Thankfully the Blues can rely on the explosive goal-scoring exploits of Costa. The Brazil-born Spain striker was on hand to beautifully power home a header from eight-yards out after an excellent set up play involving Hazard and Willian on the left. The ball was given to Cesar Azpilicueta, on 59 minutes, who clipped the ball from the left and up popped Costa to do what he does best - score. It was Costa's eighth goal in six league games.
Oscar though he had extended the lead four minutes later but his toe-poke past Guzan, while goal-bound was not strong enough and Aly Cissokho was cleared the ball off the line.
A couple of substitutions from both sides followed, but theRe would be no sudden change of direction for Villa and the third goal came with 10 minutes remaining. A cross field ball by Fabregas to Costa on the left, saw the striker ease past ponderous Philippe Senderos before firing a shot on goal. Guzan could only parry the ball to Cissokho who mis-controlled the ball which fell invitingly to Willian who tucked it comfortably into the back of the net.
The Blues saw out the remaining minutes and now can look forward to a Champions League Group stage outing to face Sporting Lisbon on Tuesday.
Teams: Chelsea, Courtois, Ivanovic, Fabregas, Oscar, Hazard, Costa, Matic, Willian, Cahill, Terry, Azpilicueta
Subs, Cech, Luis, Zouma, Drogba, Mikel, Schurrle, Remy
Aston Villa, Guzan, Baker, Cleverley, Weimann, Agbonlahor, Senderos, Westwood, Delph, Richardson, Hutton, Cissokho
Subs, Given, Clark, Bacuna, Bent, Sanchez, N'Zogbia, Grealish
Referee
Philip Dowd