Premier League: Chelsea 1 Aston Villa 3

THIS is the kind of photograph Stephen Ireland’s missus should be circulating around cyberspace on Twitter after he helped Villa prove her and many, many others wrong at Chelsea.

“Shisha, alcohol and Xmas songs – doesn’t get better than this,” tweeted Jessica Lawlor with a photo of Ireland smoking a pipe, glass of wine in hand, over Christmas.

Well, as Alex McLeish was quick to point out during a remarkable New Year’s St-eve at Stamford Bridge, yes it does get better than that, Jess.

Much better.

Scoring your first goal for Aston Villa, pulling off a famous victory, finally silencing your critics for now – sssshhhisha! – and restoring the hope of the claret and blue faithful.

One former medal-winning Villa favourite, more decorated than Ireland’s lavish mansion, suggested before the match that McLeish should mock up a picture of the enigma celebrating a goal to remind him of the real privileges of playing for the club.

He doesn’t need to now. Ireland has raised the bar rather than a glass, his pipe dream has come true and now he must make sure his resolution lasts beyond the season of goodwill and continues throughout his Villa career.

For Villa it might not “get better than this”. Occasionally upsetting the elite, even creaking Chelsea, might be as good as it gets during a campaign of consolidation.

Let’s be realistic. These could be the rare peaks during what promises to be a bumpy ride for quite some time yet. However, after a turbulent 2011, it was an ideal way to ring in 2012.

While Chelsea boasted a bench including Fernando Torres, Frank Lampard and Jose Bosingwa, Villa, despite naming fit-again Darren Bent among the subs, have a fringe less substantial than Ireland’s.

Yet after hinting at a revival with a brave defeat to Arsenal and carrying it on with a battling draw at Stoke, they were good value for a victory against Andre Villas-Boas’ fading force. Villa are certainly on a better streak than Saturday’s topless male pitch invader.

True, they rode their luck at times against the title also-rans, who scored first and dominated territory and possession.

Didier Drogba’s 23rd-minute penalty had an air of inevitability about it when the Chelsea battering ram squeezed his spot-kick beneath Brad Guzan’s body after being upended by Richard Dunne.

However, Villa, Dunne and Ireland, especially, produced the perfect response to secure McLeish’s most satisfying achievement so far of his fledgling reign.