The Japan Times - Rosenior hails 'world class' Joao Pedro after hat-trick crushes Villa

Joao Pedro's first Premier League treble lifted Chelsea into fifth place, just three points behind fourth-placed Villa in the race to qualify for next season's Champions League.

Cole Palmer also scored on a memorable night for the Blues, who came from behind after Douglas Luiz's opener to end their three-match winless run in the league.

But it was Joao Pedro, with 14 league goals to his credit this season, who earned the acclaim from Rosenior.

"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," he said.

"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, with Manchester United and Liverpool losing during the midweek fixtures, Chelsea have strengthened their push to reach the Champions League.

"It's only significant if we back it up. We have to be consistent," Rosenior said.

"We have massive FA Cup game, then we've got huge game in Paris (in the Champions League), 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."

When Luiz struck inside three minutes, Villa had high hopes of taking a huge step towards bolstering their own Champions League ambitions but their night turned sour.

Unai Emery's men have now won just one of their last six league games.

"We are in a bad moment. Why? Maybe we have lost our structure," Emery said.

"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.

"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."

S.Fujimoto--JT