A penalty from Frank Lampard and a blistering shot from Didier Drogba gave champions Chelsea a well-deserved 2-0 win on Sunday at Blackburn Rovers, who slipped to bottom place in the Premier League after three matches.
Earlier Aston Villa beat Newcastle United 2-0 at Villa Park with first half goals from Luke Moore and Juan Pablo Angel while Newcastle had an afternoon to forget as new 15.0 million euro ($19.0 million) signing Obafemi Martins was stretchered off after receiving a dead leg.
The results lifted Villa into second place behind Manchester United, followed by Everton in third place and Chelsea fourth.
Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho was pleased with the victory after the midweek defeat at Middlesbrough and told Sky Sports News afterwards: "Until we scored the first goal we had no space to play. After that the game was more open and we played with lot of quality."
Rovers went into the game looking for their first win of the season after a defeat and draw in their opening two games, and matched Chelsea in the first half.
They fell behind after 49 minutes when their new Dutch defender Andre Ooijer wrestled Chelsea skipper John Terry to the ground to concede a penalty, dispatched by Frank Lampard.
Ooijer then failed to stop a surging run by substitute Drogba who out-paced and out-muscled him to score the clinching goal after 81 minutes.
"After throwing it away in the last 10 minutes at Middlesbrough we were pumped up here," Terry said.
"We showed last year in some games we didn't play at our best but got the three points and we're happy to come to places like this, difficult places, and get the win."
Of the penalty he said: "The referee was aware he had both hands round me and it was definitely a penalty, I thought. I had a clear run and he pulled me back."
UNBEATEN START
Earlier Villa maintained their unbeaten start to the season under new coach Martin O'Neill.
Newcastle were forced to play for the last 30 minutes with 10 men after Martins, who joined the club from Inter Milan on Thursday as a replacement for the retired Alan Shearer, was injured landing awkwardly in the 60th minute. Newcastle manager Glenn Roeder said Martins appeared to have suffered "a very bad dead leg", adding that he was optimistic he would be fit for Newcastle's next league match, after the international break, against Fulham on Sept. 9.
Manchester United go into the international break as league leaders after winning their third straight game 2-1 at Watford on Saturday.
But Arsenal were left in 17th place after losing 1-0 at Manchester City where a Joey Barton penalty was enough to give City their first league win over Arsenal for 15 years.
Tottenham's 2-0 defeat at home to Everton, the Merseysiders' first in the league there for 21 years, completed a gloomy weekend for north London.