Aston Villa 1-4 Chelsea

Aston Villa lost out to Chelsea in the Premier League at Villa Park on Wednesday night.

Douglas Luiz got the home side off to a flyer inside three minutes, netting his first goal since returning to the club in January.

But the visitors levelled through João Pedro and, after an Ollie Watkins effort was disallowed for a fractional offside call, led at the break when the Brazilian struck again in stoppage time.

Cole Palmer extended their lead on 55 minutes and Pedro sealed the points when he completed his hat-trick just past the hour mark.

Villa will now prepare for the resumption of the club’s UEFA Europa League campaign, with a Round of 16 first leg tie awaiting against LOSC Lille next week.

Six points separated the sides at kick-off as Villa set about completing the double over their opponents, following a 2-1 win at Stamford Bridge just over two months ago.

And it took less than three minutes for a fired-up Villa Park to acclaim the opening goal, Luiz backheeling the ball through the legs of a defender and past Filip Jörgensen from Leon Bailey’s cross.

Emi Martínez was on form to deny the visitors a swift response in the sixth minute when he kept out Pedro’s close-range header.

With 24 minutes on the clock, a searching kick from the Argentine put Watkins in behind the defence, but he fired at the Chelsea ‘keeper under heavy pressure from Trevoh Chalobah.

Luiz slipped the striker in again soon after as Villa pressed for a second, with Jörgensen sticking up a hand to turn his vicious effort over the bar.

Morgan Rogers hit the target at the end of a flowing break, but with the home side in the ascendancy, Chelsea struck a sucker punch.

Enzo Fernández’s crossfield pass picked out Malo Gusto on the right and the full-back’s driven ball across the face of goal was turned in by Pedro.

Villa came within an inch of retaking the lead, when Watkins finished off a clinical counter-attack, only to see VAR reveal a fractional offside in the build up.

The Blues benefited from a marginal offside call of their own in the sixth of eight minutes added on at the end of the first half, Pedro chipping the ball over Martínez to give them the lead for the first time.

Rogers bent a free-kick narrowly over as Villa attacked towards the Holte End at the start of the second half, but their task became more difficult when Palmer netted his side’s third after 55 minutes.

Chelsea’s No.10 lashed home a loose ball in the box, sending his shot through a crowd of players to make it 3-1.

A fourth goal followed just past the hour mark when Alejandro Garncaho sprung the offside trap and put the ball on a plate for Pedro to tap home for his hat-trick.

Substitutes Ross Barkley and Alysson combined, the latter shooting wide, as Villa pushed for a way back into the game.

A threat remained at the other end, however, and Martínez saved superbly with his feet from Garnacho as the match ticked into the final ten minutes.

Tammy Abraham hit the crossbar with a looping header in the closing stages as Villa were left to ponder defeat in B6.