Unai Emery admitted that Aston Villa have lost the element of surprise that powered them to the Champions League places last season, after his side’s troubling winless run was extended to eight matches.

For long periods on Sunday afternoon at Chelsea, the answers seemed further away than ever. The home side, who trailed in Villa’s shadow the past two seasons and who Emery’s men would like to consider rivals in the race for Champions League football, fizzed with energy and belief.

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"At the beginning of the season, we can sense some teams were better than us and one of them is Chelsea. We try to keep the balance and not be frustrated. "We are going to try again to recover our confidence for Wednesday against Brentford."

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Aston Villa's run of poor form continued Sunday as they were defeated 3-0 by Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. Villa were outperformed by the

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The Villa boss gives his thoughts on the 3-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge. Programme Website. Coming Up Next. now playing