It is no surprise that Joao Pedro came in for praise from our head coach, after his hat-trick fired us into a dramatic come-back win over our rivals for a top-four spot in the Premier League.

After falling behind early on, the Brazilian slid in Malo Gusto’s low cross and then dinked a finish over the goalkeeper to put us 2-1 up at half-time. Cole Palmer then drove in a third Chelsea goal, before Joao Pedro completed the scoring and his hat-trick by rolling into an empty net after being teed up by Garnacho.

That took the 24-year-old’s goals tally for the season to 17 in all competitions, including eight goals in as many Premier League games since Rosenior took charge as Chelsea head coach.

‘He’s a top player,’ said Rosenior, when asked about our striker’s performance after the final whistle at Villa Park.

‘I think he’s growing in confidence. His hold-up play, the energy he puts into the team in terms of his press, his movement.

‘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’ve worked hard with him on that.

‘He gets the hat-trick, but it’s really hard to single someone out because I felt it was an outstanding team performance. Going through the back line and midfield – Moi, Enzo, Romeo when he came on, Garnacho – I just felt it was an outstanding team performance.’

Another pleasing aspect of the win at Villa for Rosenior was the performance of Garnacho on his return to the starting line-up in Birmingham.

The way the winger put his disappointment at being on the bench at Arsenal at the weekend behind him to play his part on Wednesday, and put Joao Pedro’s hat-trick goal on a plate for him, left Liam impressed.

‘That’s what usually happens when you’re professional and you do everything right on the training pitch,’ he explained.

‘He’s really impressed me in the last few weeks and he’s impressed me the most when he’s been out of the team, because his reaction to being out of the team, his professionalism, the intensity that he’s trained at, it’s no coincidence that he’s gone and performed like that today.

‘That’s the most pleasing thing for me because he deserved that today. He should have got a goal but he was in the right position and I loved how unselfish he was to set up the goal for Joao.’

Tonight Chelsea wore our third kit, inspired by the one worn during our historic 2004/05 campaign. Supporters wishing to purchase men's sizes of our third kit can pre-register their interest ahead of its imminent restock, while women's and children's sizes can be bought now.