Chelsea 7 Villa 1

Villa slumped to their heaviest ever Premier League defeat after a real drubbing at Chelsea.

The claret and blues completely collapsed after pulling level and finished the game having conceded four goals to Frank Lampard, two to Florent Malouda and one from sub Salomon Kalou.

John Carew's first-half equaliser was the best Martin O'Neill's men could muster in return but, it it hadn't been for that goal, the result would have levelled the club's record defeat.

And as a dress rehearsal for next month's FA Cup semi-final, it couldn't have got much worse for Villa.

A sign of things ahead came just 15 minutes in when Lampard's cross deflected in to open the scoring, before Carew prodded in another Ashley Young ball across the box on 29.

But just as it seemed Villa would go in at the break level James Collins impeded Yuri Zhirkov in the area, with Lampard slamming in the spot-kick.

Chelsea edged out of sight in the 57th minute when an intricate passing move took apart the midfield to set up Malouda, who finished the ball from 12 yards.

That opened the floodgates, as choruses of "are you West Ham in disguise" echoed around Stamford Bridge, and it wouldn't get any better for O'Neill or his players.

Five minutes later Chelsea were awarded a penalty with Zhirkov again halted after rampaging forward, this time by Richard Dunne.

Lampard again slipped in the spot-kick to make it 4-1 and complete his hat-trick.

Malouda was hot on his heels six minutes later with Lampard this time the provider, before sub Kalou got the sixth after the Villa defence had backed off Nicolas Anelka to slip it into his path.

Lampard got the last goal in stoppage time and the 150th goal for the club, turning the ball home in the area.

To add injury to insult for Villa, John Carew and the returning Gabby Agbonlahor were both replaced after looking to have picked up knocks, with Eimle Heskey missing the game all together through injury.