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.

Unai Emery is the most methodical of managers - the return to fitness of Kamara has come at a good time for Aston Villa

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

"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."

Even by his stands Emery, has been putting in extra hours. Villa's manager is desperate to end their run of four straight defeats

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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

Unai Emery's Aston Villa go in search of their first win in over a month today against Chelsea (1:30pm kick-off)