Chelsea went the right way about getting their season back on track at Stamford Bridge thanks to a solid 2-0 victory over Aston Villla.
Diego Costa opened the scoring and had a hand to play in the second - his pass was deflected by Allan Hutton into his own net.
Jose Mourinho made several changes to his starting line up after the international break, dropping Gary Cahill, Eden Hazard, Nemanja Matic and Oscar to the bench, while handing Baba Rahman a Premier League debut in the Blues defence.
Chelsea started the half nervously but had their first chance seven mins in when Pedro broke through the middle, dispatching a pass to Loftus-Cheek who's shot from just inside area was deflected wide.
A weak Baba challenge on Hutton down the right in the 11th minute enabled the Villa man to shoot from edge of area, but Asmir Begovic was on hand to parry before Hutton's second strike was lashed across face of goal.
Villa nearly took the lead 23 minutes in when Jack Grealish won his side a free kick just outside the box, but Jordan Ayew's strike found the top of Begovic's net.
Chelsea were lucky not to concede just after the half hour mark when Ayew raced down the left to cross the ball to Rudy Gestede, who shot over from six yards out.
But it was Chelsea who broke the deadlock minutes later when Willian latched onto a mistake by Joleon Lescott who failed to control Brad Guzan's clearance, squaring the ball into the path of Costa who tapped it in from seven yards out.
The Blues doubled their lead eight minutes after the break when Cesc Fabregas found Costa with a sublime chipped through ball - the front man took the ball down and then looked to pass to Willian, only for the ball to be deflected by Hutton past a helpless Guzan into the Villa net.
It took until the 69th minute for Chelsea to threaten again - Willian picked up on another loose ball and fed it into Costa, but Guzan was on his toes and rushed out of his goal to meet the ball before Costa could get to it.
Tim Sherwood's side found their feet after the second Chelsea goal and started to have a say on proceedings, but the away side's inability to create chances, coupled with a solid defensive display from the hosts, meant they failed to test Begovic.
Fabregas almost added his name to the score sheet in the last ten minutes when he latched onto a Willian pass, but his strike from wide of the right hand post was flashed across goal.
CHELSEA: Begovic, Fabregas, Zouma, Baba, Ramires, Pedro (Hazard 83mins), Costa, Willian (Remy 90mins), Terry, Azpilicueta, Loftus-Cheek (Matic 45mins)
Subs (not used): Blackman, Oscar, Mikel, Cahill
