AsTON VILLA 1 CHELSEA 2
Aston Villa - Okore 48' Chelsea - Hazard 8', Ivanovic 66'
Man of the match - Willian (Chelsea)
BIRMINGHAM // Jose Mourinho said Chelsea's seven-point lead is precarious because of the competitive nature of the Premier League.
Branislav Ivanovic's superb winner at Aston Villa fired Chelsea farther clear of Manchester City in the race for the title.
City’s 1-1 draw with Hull allowed Mourinho’s side to strengthen their grip with a 2-1 win at Villa Park on Saturday.
“In another country I would say it’s fantastic, in this country I would say it’s nothing,” Mourinho said.
“Every game is difficult, anything can happen. It’s very, very difficult.
“Seven points means seven points, we have 14 matches to go. We are speaking about 42 points to play for and in 42 we have a lead of seven. I think it’s nothing.”
City’s failure to beat Hull did not surprise Mourinho and he said Chelsea would focus on themselves.
“I’m surprised by nothing. In this country every team can take points, so I am not surprised. I didn’t care about it. Somebody told me after the game and that was it. When you are top of the league you don’t need other teams to lose points. If they lose, good, but if they don’t it’s not a problem,” he said.
Eden Hazard’s opener was cancelled out by Jores Okore’s first strike for Villa, ending their 11-hour league goal drought.
It was Villa’s first league goal since December 20, but defeat left them two places above the bottom three. Paul Lambert’s side have won just twice in their past 20 top-flight games.
“There’s a lot of good things to come out of the game for us, we’re disappointed to lose. I didn’t think we deserved to lose,” Lambert said.
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