BlueLion.

You know, from someone who used to help run this site pretty well, I was expecting better from you.

Dr Evil.

José Mourinho secured his 200th win as Chelsea manager as Diego Costa inspired the Blues back to winning ways against a woeful Aston Villa side on his return from suspension. The Spaniard, who was making his first appearance in the Premier League following his questionable retrospective ban for his conduct in a 2-0 defeat of Arsenal last month, got the ball rolling as the Blues capitalised on a defensive lapse to earn a half-time lead. And Costa was then influential as Chelsea doubled their advantage within ten minutes of the restart to consign Aston Villa to an eighth game without a victory as his deflected cut-back looped over the stranded Bran Guzan. In a game that saw the Blues move up to a more respectable eleventh in the league standings, Mourinho once more demonstrated his trademark ruthless selection policy as Gary Cahill, Eden Hazard and Oscar were amongst those demoted to the bench. With Branislav Ivanovic missing through injury, Mourinho called on Baba Rahman for his first Premier League start since last summer's switch from Bundesliga outfit Augsburg, whilst Ruben Loftus-Cheek joined Pedro and the in-form Willian in a midfield three behind the returning Costa. Whilst Villa were able to contain the Blues with relative ease during the opening exchanges, Tim Sherwood's side demonstrated little attacking potency, and the hosts were eventually able to impose themselves as the first half meandered on somewhat aimlessly prior to Costa's opener. Both sides looked toothless offensively, with the pattern of the game indicating that an individual mistake would be the most likely route to goal. That indeed proved the case as Guzan's loose pass put Joleon Lescott under pressure in his own half, allowing Willian to steal in and selflessly square for Costa to fire home first time. Once more, the Brazilian was proving to be Chelsea's most effective attacking player, and another telling contribution here in electing to pass to the unmarked Spaniard as opposed to shooting from a tight angle underlines his importance to Mourinho's side. That goal was not necessarily a deserved one for Chelsea, but with Villa being the architects of their own downfall in attempting to play out from the back, the Blues began to apply to squeeze and they made the game safe with a second goal just ten minutes after the resumption following the interval. As Villa once again attempted to play the ball out from the back, Ramires produced a wonderful challenge to win it back and fed Cesc Fabregas, who, in looking a shade of the player who lit up the Premier League last season, intelligently picked out the run of Costa. The striker took one touch to bring it down before cutting back inside and, as he fired towards goal, the ball deflected off the foot of Hutton and looped over Guzan into the back of the net. The second goal sparked us quickly into life and we began to move the ball around confidently in the attacking third as we looked to kill the game off. Villa had offered very little since the break in terms of an attacking threat, but Azpilicueta had to be alert to make an important block as Lescott attempted to reduce the deficit when we were unable to clear a free-kick.In truth, things had been comfortable for the Blues for much of the game, with Asmir Begovic a virtual spectator. It was exactly the sort of result needed to give the Blues a needed confidence boost ahead of a tricky European engagement in Kyiv on Tuesday evening.

Glass half empty.

Still better than Ivanovic.

The same can be said of Jan-May of last season. Thankfully you don't get points deducted for bad performances. A win is a win. Enjoy it.

Villa were utterly atrocious - but take nothing away from us. We defended well, limited them to absolutely no chances, and thoroughly deserved three points. Onwards and upwards, and onto the next one.

k

Baba isn't ready. José is right.

Doesn't matter what he does with Belgium though, Tom. He hasn't cut the mustard for the Chels. Yes, we can accept the same applies to the majority of the squad, but José is clearly just giving Eden some tough love.

I'd like to point out that I have today banned Lionsden. This is not a decision that has been made lightly. After a review in the staff section, we agreed that his posts - which are largely very critical and demeaning towards others - are not conducive to the positive environment of enlightened debate which we are trying to maintain. If you would like to discuss this, please contact me directly.

Jaime Lannister, without a doubt, as he's by far the best character in the books and the TV series. Conversely, in the books I hate Brienne's chapters, mostly, but in the show she's absolutely brilliant. Must say that Jon Connington is one of my favourite characters, I look forward to reading more of his stuff.

The amount of times I've read the Red Wedding chapter before bed... I'm a sadist...

Absolutely not, I'm the resident ASOIAF expert At least my third time reading this one, possibly more. Far better than A Feast for Crows but lame in comparison to A Storm of Swords.

Relegation six pointer

Wow. I believe we were in for Pogba, but ended up getting priced out.

RLC - incredibly lazy. Needs to up his work-rate. LB - the complete opposite. Industrious, tenacious, disciplined. He's come on leaps and bounds. Chalobah played for 10 minutes with us 2-0, then 3-0 up, so I can't offer a fair judgement.

These certainly are by no means the most comprehensive notes I've ever made, but you may be interested reading my notes on Loftus Cheek and Baker from Tuesday's England U21s fixture. Apologies for the shocking handwriting:

There were two instances when he decided to track back and he won the ball back almost effortlessly, other than that his defensive workload and work rate was minimal, which disappointed me, As I said to zolayes, the amount of times he decided to track back is dwarfed by the instances when he simply allowed the opposition to steal a march on him. He is only young, but if he wants to play as a midfielder for Jose Mourinho's Chelsea, he needs to up the intensity of his performances big style. Totally agreed with you. I went yesterday with the club where I coach, as we were given free tickets by the FA. I took my notepad and took notes on his performance and Lewis Baker's. I'll scan in what I wrote as the game progressed. Totally agree. But he definitely has the potential. These certainly are by no means the most comprehensive notes I've ever made, but you may be interested reading my notes on Loftus Cheek and Baker from Tuesday's England U21s fixture. Apologies for the shocking handwriting:

I was at the U21s international last night and whilst Ruben had a good game, he was by no means outstanding. He took his goal well, but he was lazy and frequently couldn't be bothered tracking back to help his team. On top of that, his finishing was poor and realistically should have at least doubled his goal tally. The people calling him "our best midfielder" are, I'm afraid, well wide of the mark. He has a talent for sure, but let's not overhype him. At the minute, he is a decent young player, but lightyears behind the Luke Shaws, Ross Barkleys, etc. of this world in terms of his development.

Allow me to ruin the Star Wars universe for you: http://i.imgur.com/rd5jhzV.gifv

I'm registered as an organ donor for everything except my corneas and my brain, as I believe your eyes (as a window to your soul) and your brain (as the home of the human mind) is what makes us individual. My heart, lungs, kidneys, etc. are all up for donation upon my death, or beforehand with a kidney, for instance, if circumstances dictated.

Neither do I. Like I say, not my article, and I disagree vehemently with several of the points.

People expect him to be a miracle worker. Just one start (where he had two shots cleared off the line) isn't much to judge him by. Playing in front of this clueless midfield, he's done well to even get a goal.