Aston Villa 0 Chelsea 3

By Steven Baker, PA Sport

Tore Andre Flo kept Chelsea's title flame flickering and sent Aston Villa crashing to their eighth defeat in nine games.

Flo put the Blues in front on 59 minutes, latching on to Albert Ferrer's long pass and beating Gareth Southgate before firing past Mark Bosnich.

The Norwegian then turned provider four minutes from time, his ball enabling Bjarne Goldbaek to shoot home from 12 yards.

And Flo, who scored against Valerenga in the Cup Winners' Cup on Thursday, put the icing on the cake in the 90th minute when he got on the end of Jody Morris' pass and rounded Bosnich before sidefooting into an empty net for his 11th goal of the season.

In truth, Chelsea could have won by even more, poor finishing and a fine display by Bosnich keeping the score respectable.

But any sort of victory will have been welcomed by the Londoners, who have leapfrogged Leeds to move back up to third and needed all three points today to hang on to the coat tails of Manchester United and Arsenal.

After last Saturday's defeat to West Ham, Stamford Bridge manager Gianluca Vialli conceded his side could not lift the title, though he revised his assessment of that situation during the week.

And though they still need to make up a lot of ground on the top two, this triumph at least keeps Chelsea's hopes alive.

Villa, though, have long since given up on their hopes of winning the Premiership - and even the possibility of not qualifying for the UEFA Cup next season is looming large over Villa Park.

That was inconceivable when the Midlanders led the League at the start of January but they now lie sixth and have to arrest their slide quickly if they are to have any chance of playing in Europe.

Villa could try to use the unusually early kick-off time of 11.30am as an excuse for their lethargic first-half performance, the Midlanders struggling to string more than a couple of passes together on the rare occasions they won possession.

But the real reasons for their dire display may have more to do with their nightmare recent run of results.

However, for all the hosts' nervousness in defence and lack of penetration in attack, Chelsea found it difficult to make their dominance tell in the early stages.

Bosnich, making only his third start since recovering from a shoulder injury which kept him out for five months, pulled off a handful of top stops to keep Villa in touch in the first half.

He denied Gianfranco Zola on two occasions, the second time scrambling across to his left to palm a deflected drive wide.

But the Australian's best save of the opening period came on 15 minutes when he blocked Flo's shot with his feet after the striker had been released by Goldbaek.

Villa did not take heed of those early warnings and were still as sloppy and off the pace as they had been from the start.

That it took Chelsea 59 minutes to take the lead was perhaps the biggest surprise of the day, though they then wasted several opportunities to increase their advantage.

Bosnich saved Gareth Barry's blushes when he saved from Zola after the young defender's pass had gone straight to the Italian 35 yards out.

Flo lobbed another effort wide after being found by Graeme Le Saux before Julian Joachim wasted Villa's best chance, lobbing wide after intercepting Marcel Desailly's back pass.

Bosnich pulled off a flying save to deny Zola again but Chelsea were not to be denied and their late brace ensured Villa were booed off by the majority of the 39,217 fans.

Teams

Aston Villa: Bosnich, Watson, Southgate, Barry, Wright, Stone, Hendrie (Taylor 83), Scimeca, Thompson, Collymore (Joachim 74), Dublin (Merson 74).

Subs Not Used: Draper, Oakes.

Booked: Thompson.

Chelsea: De Goey, Ferrer, Le Saux, Desailly, Leboeuf, Petrescu (Lambourde 79), Goldbaek, Wise, Morris,Flo (Nicholls 90), Zola.

Subs Not Used: Duberry, Newton, Hitchcock.

Booked: Ferrer, Desailly, Wise.

Goals: Flo 59, Goldbaek 86, Flo 90.

Att: 39,217

Ref: G Barber (Pyrford).