João Pedro celebrates after scoring Chelsea’s fourth goal against Aston Villa.
João Pedro points to the sky after scoring Chelsea’s fourth goal at Villa Park. Photograph: Jaimi Joy/Reuters
As these teams emerged for kick-off, the Holte End displayed a tifo proudly flaunting Aston Villa’s hand, chiefly an ace of clubs. By the end, however, they rued a damaging defeat after Chelsea roused from being behind to dismantle Unai Emery’s side and canter to victory, João Pedro scoring a hat-trick to make it 17 goals for the season in all competitions.
The Brazilian, a £55m buy from Brighton last summer, was in the mood for a fourth and tried his luck with an overhead-kick, while the Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez prevented Alejandro Garnacho from adding a fifth late on. For Villa and their grand aspirations, it was a sobering evening.
It was Liam Rosenior who shuffled his pack a little, dropping Robert Sánchez with the goalkeeper culpable for both goals in defeat at Arsenal last Sunday, but while Chelsea made a poor start, trailing inside two minutes, Filip Jörgensen was rarely troubled on just his third league appearance of the season.
When João Pedro exhibited his anime face-mask goal celebration for the final time, every outfield Chelsea player joined the party in front of the away fans, while many in the home end headed for the exits. It was fitting that Enzo Fernández pretended to polish the forward’s boot after his second.
Emery dismissed the notion of pressure eating at his players after defeat at Wolves last Friday and despite seizing an early lead here through Douglas Luiz, at times they appeared overawed by the occasion.
Emery has been at pains to project positivity but perhaps it was a tactic given there was no way of dressing up this as an occasion. The prize on offer – the chance to move nine points clear of a direct rival – meant it was hard not to consider this Villa’s biggest match of the season. Villa have now won only one of their past five home league matches, having won the previous eight.
Things started so well for Villa. Douglas Luiz flicked Leon Bailey’s cross, cleverly dummied by Ollie Watkins, beyond Jörgensen to open the scoring but Chelsea equalised on 35 minutes. Fernández flighted a diagonal pass behind the Villa back line for Malo Gusto, played onside by the deputising Villa captain Ezri Konsa, and his perfect cross allowed João Pedro a simple finish.
The potential turning point came approaching the interval, when Watkins buried his shot past Jörgensen, thinking he had ended his barren run. A video assistant referee review found his kneecap to be offside. Watkins wore a look of disgust and locals shared their feelings as the semi-automated offside image was displayed on the big screens in opposite corners.
João Pedro scores Chelsea’s second goal against Aston Villa.
João Pedro lifts the ball over Emiliano Martínez to give Chelsea a 2-1 lead.
A creaking Villa unravelled, João Pedro earning the visitors the lead in first-half stoppage time with a superb finish from Fernández’s neat pass. Chelsea breezed clear in the second half.
Villa grew frustrated, acutely aware of the implications of defeat. Morgan Rogers was booked for dissent, booting the ball against the advertising hoardings after the referee, Jarred Gillett, came down on Gusto’s side as the pair tussled. Fernández was booked during the same stoppage for what Gillett, presumably, deemed sarcastic applause. That was after Cole Palmer made it 3-1.
João Pedro was again at the heartbeat of the move, biding his time centrally to pick the right pass. The Brazilian located Palmer, who spied Reece James bursting forward on the overlap and when the Chelsea captain sent the ball into the box, Martínez pushed it back into Palmer’s path, just inside Villa’s 18-yard box. Palmer, blinkers on, rattled an unerring shot low into the Villa net.
Villa made a triple change soon after the hour, the former Chelsea winger Jadon Sancho among those introduced but a minute later João Pedro capped the scoring, completing his hat-trick. Midway through the second half, after all the buildup, this had descended into something of a non-event.
Villa were frozen, powerless to regain control. Chelsea again feasted on Villa’s high line and Garnacho eliminated an exposed Martínez after squaring the ball to the edge of the six-yard box, where João Pedro waited for the easiest finish of the lot, converting into an empty net.