His results hardly confound convention — Chelsea top after an easy home win — but Luiz Felipe Scolari is an iconoclast. Most club managers detest the international break, but the Chelsea manager welcomes this one: his team are frozen at the summit of the Barclays Premier League for at least the next 12 days and, more important, the hiatus will give Chelsea’s wounded time to heal.

“After ten or 15 days, to have all our players in good condition is the most important thing,” Scolari said. Didier Drogba and Michael Essien will not be ready for the trip to Middlesbrough on October 18, but Deco and Alex should be back, with Ricardo Carvalho close. Scolari must hope, though, that John Terry and Nicolas Anelka do not aggravate minor problems on international duty.

There were no worries about Frank Lampard, who was outstanding against Aston Villa yesterday. “He played very, very well — two ‘verys’,” Scolari said. And no doubt about Scolari’s hunger. “First in the league, first in the Champions League group, fourth round in the Carling Cup — I want more,” he said.

Martin O’Neill had said that you would no more judge Villa’s top-four prospects now than you would rate a golfer who had completed only three holes of his round. But he had to admit that yesterday was a double-bogey: a performance and result that could give his team the yips.

“I really thought we’d win the game. We came in with plenty of confidence,” he said. “It was a harsh lesson. Chelsea were absolutely brilliant. We could have genuinely learnt a lot today. It’s definitely tough to break into [the top four], but it won’t stop us trying. The gap may well be great, but it’s not unbreachable. The lesson is that we have to aspire to Chelsea’s ability.”