Chelsea defeated Aston Villa 4-1 on Wednesday, boosting their chances of making it to the Champions League with a hat-trick from João Pedro. Liam Rosenior’s team moved up to fifth position, only three points behind fourth-place Villa, after Joao Pedro’s first Premier League hat-trick.
Chelsea overcame Douglas Luiz’s early opening at Villa Park thanks to the Brazilian’s outstanding performance and a goal from Cole Palmer. The Blues were able to wipe the bitter taste of their three-game losing streak in the league with the most comprehensive display of Rosenior’s two months in command.
Villa had great expectations of taking a significant step toward guaranteeing their own Champions League dreams when Luiz scored within three minutes, but their evening took a turn for the worse. With only one victory in their past six games, Unai Emery’s team are seriously in danger of losing their spot in Europe’s top club tournament.
After goalkeeper Robert Sanchez’s subpar performance in Sunday’s 2-1 loss to Arsenal, Rosenior substituted Filip Jorgensen.
Joao Pedro impressing under Liam Rosenior
That evening, the 24-year-old showed remarkable power to hold off the Arsenal centre-backs with his back to goal while dragging them out of position. He provided Chelsea with an outlet, connected the play, raced to the channels, and won twice as many fouls as anybody else.
A goal was all that was lacking, but those haven’t been hard to come by recently. Joao Pedro has scored seven goals in his past nine Chelsea games. The only player in the Premier League with more goals since the start of the season is Viktor Gyokeres of Arsenal.
Joao Pedro’s scoring output has increased from eight goals in 30 games earlier this season to seven in his past nine, coinciding with the hiring of Liam Rosenior, who stated last week that he has the potential to become one of the world’s top attackers.
The hope for Chelsea is that they may have finally found a No. 9 who can match the stats of Diego Costa, the last striker to score 20 goals for the team in a Premier League season—a record he accomplished twice in three years at Stamford Bridge.
