Fabian Delph scored a late winner for Aston Villa to put a sizeable dent in Chelsea’s title charge.
The Blues ended the game with just nine men, after both Willian and Ramires were sent off.
And Delph added to Jose Mourinho’s woe by finding an improvised finish to start and end an impressive move by Villa.
Chelsea remain six points ahead of second-place Manchester City, but Manuel Pellegrini’s men have three games in hand.
And the visitors left Villa Park empty-handed and will now be hit by suspensions to Willian and Ramires.
The game only came to life in the latter stages, although Chelsea had the ball in the net in the first half only for Nemanja Matic’s effort chalked off for handball.
A stuttering match at Villa Park livened up when Willian was given his marching orders in the 67th minute on Delph.
And Delph landed the killer blow to the visitors 15 minutes later, nudging past Petr Cech with a neat finish.
Christian Benteke also stung the palms of Cech late on, and the Blues keeper did well to prevent Delph adding a second by tipping his left-footed drive onto the bar.
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