Watkins makes 11 in a row

Ollie Watkins came off the bench to score twice Villa Aston came from behind to claim an 11th consecutive victory in all competitions and continue his improbable Premier League title aspirations with a 2-1 victory at Chelsea.

Villa were comfortably second in the first half at Stamford Bridge and were fortunate to only trail by a single goal, thanks to a finish from the little-known Joao Pedro.

But Watkins’ introduction just before the hour mark turned the game in Villa’s favour, his effort within four minutes of his introduction restoring parity.

And six minutes from the end of normal time, he headed home from a Youri Tielemans corner to ensure Villa go into Tuesday’s game against Arsenal, who they beat at Villa Park earlier this month, just three points behind the league leaders.

Chelsea force Emery into action

Chelsea were utterly dominant in the first half, with Cole Palmer racing away from the edge of the box early on before Enzo Fernandez squandered a gilded chance at the end of a superbly worked move and Pedro was denied by Emi Martinez.

Reece James shot narrowly from long range, but his delivery of the dead ball helped break the deadlock, with Martinez unable to prevent it from nestling into the net via Pedro’s slightest touch.

VAR disagreed with Villa’s claims that Martinez had been hampered by Pedro as he attempted to deal with the cross, and it seemed only a matter of time before they fell further behind.

John McGinn had to produce some smart defending to prevent Alejandro Garnacho tapping in at the far post after a Palmer delivery, and Martinez had to collect a James cross shot, with Chelsea’s constant pressure forcing Unai Emery into action.

Watkins bucks the trend

Watkins, Sancho and Amadou Onana were started in a triple substitution which quickly bore fruit.

Rogers played an excellent pass to Watkins, whose low finish squirmed under Robert Sanchez, and the Chelsea keeper was by far the busier of the two afterwards.

He had to push away efforts from Ian Maatsen and another from Watkins before Rogers curled a free-kick narrowly over the crossbar.

Sanchez could do nothing to stop Watkins completing the turnaround as he met Tielemans with an unstoppable header to put Villa within striking distance of Arsenal ahead of their mouth-watering clash in north London in three days’ time.