Lukaku's brace inspire Chelsea to victory over Villa

Romelu Lukaku scored twice, while Mateo Kovacic scored one goal to help Chelsea to a 3-0 win over Aston Villa in the Premier League

Romelu Lukaku scored his first-ever goal at Stamford Bridge in Chelsea 3-0 win over Aston Villa. (Photo credit: premierleague.com)

Romelu Lukaku and Mateo Kovacic scored their first Chelsea goals at Stamford Bridge as the Blues defeated Aston Villa 3-0 to draw level on points with Manchester United atop the early Premier League table.

Lukaku was brilliantly clinical on his second home debut for the club, finishing after Kovacic's through pass on 15 minutes, and the Croatian snuck up on a poor Tyrone Mings back pass (49) to score his own first home goal for the club after the break.

Between those two goals, Villa dominated, forcing Edouard Mendy into several fine first-half saves, while Ollie Watkins was stopped by a crucial Thiago Silva block as he took the ball around the goalkeeper.

However, following Mings' gift, the hosts regained control and Lukaku doubled his tally with a brilliant left-foot shot into the top corner in injury time (90+4).

Chelsea's shaky first-half performance earned debutant Saul Niguez a yellow card at the break, but the Blues maintained their undefeated start to the season. Villa - who were without key players Emi Martinez and Emi Buendia due to Argentina's international trip - have four points from their opening four matches.

Chelsea 3-0 Aston Villa - Match Highlights

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What Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel said: "It was absolutely not comfortable. We played against a strong, strong Aston Villa side. They were well prepared. They looked very sharp and confident from the start and they caused us a lot of problems, especially in the first half.

"Second half was better. More control, a more fluid game and then a lot of chances and half-chances that we did not take very well. We lacked precision to have earlier goals but okay.

"Lukaku has the personality and self-confidence, wants to score and help team with his goals and has the composure to do it. He scored two very difficult goals, no easy tap-ins, and he made the difference for us and helped us get three points against a very strong Aston Villa side. He adds something to the group we did not have in this capacity so far."

What Aston Villa boss Dean Smith said: "I'm frustrated with the score line but football is about moments and we didn't take our moments today. I feel with the squad I have available to me, with the quality of the squad and the athleticism we have, we can go and ask questions of these clubs and I thought we did that in the first half. The second goal took a lot of wind out of our sails. But there were a lot of positives, there's a lot of belief in this group."