For the other 85 minutes of the match though, Chelsea kept up their recent good form with a 2-0 victory.
Olof Mellberg's half-volley hit the Blues' crossbar in the very early goings, and Mustapha Hadji went close on two seperate occasions, although he failed to properly test Cudicini.
At the other end, Chelsea had a couple of half chances, before Hasselbaink's swerving drive forced Peter Enckleman into action.
And some excellent last ditch defending by Villa prevented a couple of great goal scoring chances for the free scoring Blues.
However, our dominance finally told after 43 minutes. JFH laid the ball on to Gudjohnsen (reminiscant of last season!) and the Iceman made no mistake with his neat finish off the far post.
And, just minutes into the second half, he should have doubled the advantage. After turning Gareth Barry, Eidur's strike was deflected over the bar by Enckleman's shoulder!
Villa were not out of the woods yet though. From the resulting corner, Steve Staunton headed the ball against William Gallas' face and the ball ricocheted off the bar and away.
Not content with that piece of good fortune, Chelsea proceeded to take another. And at the same time they extended the lead. Frank Lampard crossed from the left, Gudjohnsen's dummy run fooled Enckleman and the ball flew into the net. Whether or not Gudjohnsen intended to miss the ball, I just don't know. However, knowing Eidur, he will have been gutted to have missed out on a goal!
But the team comes first, and the players were all on song today, digging in for one another. Bolo Zenden was excellent in his first start since returning from injury, and we could even afford to give Franco a rest!
However, overconfidence could have cost us a goal late on, as Carlo was forced to make a couple of wonderful saves to preserve the clean sheet.
He did... and Chelsea are now up to second, with half of the season gone!