Aston Villa chiefs must’ve watched Joao Pedro show with regret in Chelsea defeat
Wednesday night was one that Aston Villa will wish they could forget in a hurry.
The Villa Park faithful were left stunned by a ruthless Chelsea performance, that saw their Aston Villa side thumped 4-1 by Liam Rosenior’s men.
It was a scoreline made worse by the fact that it was Unai Emery‘s team that took an early lead in the game, with Douglas Luiz netting with just two minutes on the clock.
However, Chelsea soon turned on the style, with Joao Pedro having a hand in all four of the Blues’ goals, scoring a hat-trick as well as being the provider of Cole Palmer’s goal.
Aston Villa were interested in signing Joao Pedro this summer
It was a devastating performance from Chelsea’s Brazilian forward, who is enjoying a superb debut season at Stamford Bridge.
20 goals and six assists in 41 appearances across all competitions has seen him become one of the undisputed signings of the 2025-26 Premier League season, and £60million well spent by Chelsea.
The Blues poached the striker from Brighton in June last year, after he’d bagged 30 goals in 70 games for the Seagulls during a two-year spell at the AMEX.
However, things could’ve been different for him and Aston Villa on Wednesday night, as he may have helped Villa put Chelsea to the sword had his summer transfer saga played out differently.
As reported by The Sun in May 2025, Villa, alongside the likes of Newcastle, Liverpool and Arsenal were all credited as holding an interest in acquiring Pedro’s services, with the price tag then reportedly set at £70m.
Alas, it was Chelsea who won the race for Pedro’s signature, and he made sure to let Villa know of his quality at Villa Park.
Pedro would’ve made Ollie Watkins decision easier this summer
Aston Villa’s strikers haven’t been firing on all cylinders this season, with Ollie Watkins in particular seeing a significant downturn in production.
The 30-year-old has just eight Premier League goals to his name this term, in a Villa side that has only managed to muster 39 league goals so far this campaign.
Therefore, serious questions over his long-term Villa future are being asked, but had Pedro been wearing claret and blue on Wednesday, the decision on what to do with the England international may have been far simpler.
Pedro has now established himself as one of the Premier League’s, and by extension Europe’s, best strikers, and at 24, he looks primed to enjoy many more years of plentiful goalscoring at Stamford Bridge.
With Tammy Abraham also now on the books and the highly-rated Brian Madjo developing too, moving on from Watkins and handing over the baton to Pedro would’ve surely been a fairly straightforward decision for Villa’s decision-makers this summer.
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