Football: Blues' strike force has rhythm and Flo

Aston Villa 0 Chelsea 2 M Hughes 38, Flo 82 Attendance: 39,37

Europe now beckons for Villa and Chelsea and, on this evidence, the divisions in their destinies will be more pronounced than anything the politicians can come up with on currency.

For Chelsea, who crept up to fourth in the Premiership table, it was the sort of performance they will need to overcome Tromso from 3-2 down in the Cup-Winners' Cup at Stamford Bridge on Thursday; for Villa, who slipped down to 14th, exactly what they will fear come Tuesday when Athletic Bilbao come to Villa Park in the Uefa Cup after the goalless first leg.

Considering these are supposed to be heavyweights of the English game, both tipped as title contenders pre-season, it was a surprisingly grey game. Chelsea had no need to hit the exciting heights they have occasionally reached this season because of the feeble challenge Villa offered. Competence was sufficient to overcome ineptitude.

Looking at their squad list, it was hard to understand Villa's poor start to the season. Watching them yesterday, even allowing for the absences through injury of Mark Bosnich and Stan Collymore, it became clear that to count them among the nation's top six is fanciful. Shot-shy, predictable and lacking confidence, they began indifferently and got worse once Dwight Yorke had missed a penalty midway through the first half.

Yorke cut a lonely figure up front, with Julian Joachim lightweight alongside, and a midfield of Mark Draper, Simon Grayson and Fernando Nelson threatening little penetration. The service from the wing-backs Alan Wright and Gary Charles was negligible. Yesterday was Villa's third game in succession without scoring.

"In the first half we were OK and played some good football," said Brian Little, who is joining the list of beleaguered Premiership managers, before admitting "but in the second we didn't have too many ideas."

By contrast, Chelsea always had a cutting edge in Mark Hughes, who grabbed Chelsea's first goal on his 34th birthday, and hardly even needed the struggling Gianfranco Zola to be near his best. The only surprise of the match was that it took so long for them to confirm their victory, through Tore Andre Flo.

"Overall, I am happy," said the Chelsea manager Ruud Gullit. "We played with a lot of confidence and in 50 per cent of our games we are keeping a clean sheet. Already that is a major improvement on last season, but we still have to improve a lot to be one of the very top teams."

The difference between the two side's attacks was seen in the early exchanges. When Grayson headed on Joachim's cross from the right, a chance fell to Nelson, who finished with a defender's aplomb by allowing the ball to slip away from him.

At the other end, Eddie Newton and Dan Petrescu worked an opening for Hughes, but his low shot was deflected just wide. From the resulting corner, the ball came back to Zola wide on the right, and he picked out Hughes in space at the far post only for Bosnich's replacement Michael Oakes, to thwart him from close range.

Villa got the ball in the net when Joachim headed home Gary Charles's long throw, but the referee had spotted a push and it began to look as if Villa would need a break from a set- piece to break the deadlock. However, when it came midway through the first half they proceeded to squander it.

Andy Myers was tricked into conceding a penalty by Yorke's neat turn but the Tobagan then pushed his kick wide of Ed De Goey's left post.

Villa were duly punished when Chelsea took the lead. Zola played a short corner on the right to Petrescu and, from the Romanian's deep cross, with the Villa defence static and ball-watching, Hughes got above Ugo Ehiogu to head home, an exposed Oakes doing well to get a hand to the ball.

With the youngsters Jody Morris - making his first start of the season, as Roberto di Matteo sat out most of the match after his exertions for Italy in Russia in midweek - and Mark Nicholls running the midfield with rather too much comfort, Chelsea assumed an easy superiority in the second half. But for P Roberts - a flag-happy linesman - they may have quickly doubled their lead, though Zola's shot home did appear offside and Hughes had handled before driving in.

Draper gave Chelsea one uncomfortable moment when he forced De Goey into a diving save with a 20-yard shot but that was about it from Villa. At last the game was sealed when Steve Clarke crossed for his fellow substitute Flo to head home powerfully at the far post. Europe arrives this week with trepidation for one side, confidence for the other.