Chelsea's grip on the Premier League title loosened this evening as they suffered their first league defeat since December at the hands of Aston Villa.

The Blues remain six points clear at the top of the table, but now second-placed Manchester City can leapfrog them if they win their three games in hand.

At Villa Park today, Jose Mourinho's side huffed and puffed but struggled to break Villa down before their task of coming out on top was made harder by the dismissal of Willian for two yellow cards.

Fabian Delph scored the winning goal eight minutes from time by cleverly flicking home from eight yards before things got worse for Chelsea late on when Ramires was shown a straight red card for a nasty studs-up tackle on Karim El Ahmadi.

Here, Sports Mole takes a closer look at this evening's proceedings.

Match statistics

Villa
Shots: 13
On target: 4
Possession: 38%
Corners: 4
Fouls: 14

Chelsea
Shots: 15
On target: 2
Possession: 62%
Corners: 5
Fouls: 8

Was the result fair?

You can't really say that Villa did enough to deserve victory, but Chelsea made life hard for themselves and never really looked that dangerous in the final third. A draw probably would have been right, with the game settled by Delph's moment of class.

Villa's performance

A visit from the league leaders was never going to be easy for Paul Lambert's side. You have to give plenty of credit to the hosts' defence, who frustrated Chelsea all game long. At the other end, Christian Benteke failed to score for a third straight game against the Blues but did put in a good shift. Match-winner Delph was Villa's best player in the middle and it really was a lovely finish to win it.

Chelsea's performance

It looked like a classic Mourinho performance as they stifled the opposition, and one was just waiting for them to find a way through and then hold out for a 1-0 win. They couldn't break Villa down, though, with Fernando Torres having one of his ghost games while Eden Hazard had his quietest outing for a while. Willian will feel that he was harshly dismissed as his second booking appeared very soft. Ramires has got no excuses, though, and will serve at least a three-match ban for his horrible challenge at the end.

Sports Mole's man of the match

Ron Vlaar: Delph could easily be here, but we're going to credit the Villa skipper for a near-faultless performance at the back. His positioning was sound and he dealt ever so well with Chelsea's fluid front four, especially in the first half.

Biggest gaffe

Really hard to pick out a gaffe from this game so we apologise to Benteke, who we're picking on for missing the target with a decent chance midway through the second half.

Referee performance

Chris Foy had plenty to do today, by and large making the right calls. In the first half, he correctly disallowed Nemanja Matic's goal as he clearly handled the ball before he stabbed home. The most contentious call was to send off Willian and you have to say that it was tough on the Brazilian to dismiss him for bundling over Delph. Ramires definitely should have walked, though, and he should be ashamed of that challenge. Mourinho wanted Joe Bennett to be sent off in the first half when he tripped Ramires, but the Brazilian wasn't definitely going through on goal and a yellow card was the right call.

What next?

Villa: Lambert's side are at home again next Saturday as Stoke City come to town.

Chelsea: The Blues have a big, big game against Arsenal next weekend, but before that they host Galatasaray in their Champions League last-16 second leg, which is delicately poised at 1-1.