‘World class’ Joao Pedro delights Liam Rosenior as Chelsea secure crucial win
The Blues trail fourth-placed Villa by three points, when a defeat would have seen the gap grow to nine.
Chelsea boss Liam Rosenior branded Joao Pedro “world class” after his hat-trick fired the Blues to a 4-1 win at Aston Villa.
Pedro’s first Premier League treble saw Rosenior’s side climb into the top five and move just three points behind a faltering Villa side in fourth.
Cole Palmer also scored on a memorable night for the Blues, who showed spirit to come from behind after Douglas Luiz’s opener.
But Pedro was the hero, taking his league tally to 14 to the season and earning acclaim from his boss.
Rosenior said: “He’s a top player. I think he’s growing in confidence.
“His goal with the left foot is world class. The finish is magnificent.
“But actually, I’m really delighted with his two tap-ins that he got. He was in the right place at the right time.
“We worked hard with him on that, but he gets the hat-trick. It’s really hard to single someone out, but I thought it was an outstanding team performance.”
It was by far the best display of Rosenior’s two months in charge and they will approach the remainder of the season with confidence.
With Manchester United and Liverpool also losing during the midweek fixtures, it turned into a good couple of days for Chelsea in their hunt for Champions League qualification.
But Rosenior said it will only count for something if they can put a run of victories together.
“It’s only significant if we back it up. We have to be consistent,” he added.
“We have massive FA Cup game, then we’ve got huge game in Paris, and then we’ve got another huge game against Newcastle.
“We just need to back it up and not look at the significance of the games. We just need to perform. And if we perform at that level, we’re going to be in a good place.
“It (Champions League qualification) wouldn’t have been gone (if we lost). It’s not just Aston Villa that we are behind and chasing.
“We’ve got those teams to play. It wouldn’t have been gone, but obviously I’m happier that we’re not nine points behind Villa.”
When Luiz struck inside three minutes, Villa had high hopes of taking a huge step towards strengthening their own Champions League ambitions but their night turned sour.
They have now won just one of their last six league games and are in real danger of slipping out of contention for a place in next season’s most prestigious club competition.
Boss Unai Emery said: “We are in a bad moment. Why? Maybe we have lost our structure.
“Our structure was so, so strong when we were being consistent in different competitions. The objective we have in front, we still have time to recover.
“Today we lost one opportunity, but it was difficult facing Chelsea.
“We are accepting the bad moment we are in, we must try to find solutions, this is my concern.
“Now is the moment we have to be together and work harder than we did.”
