Liam Rosenior insists he didn’t instruct his Chelsea players to rub Aston Villa up the wrong way at half-time on Wednesday but he did “really like it”.

After going behind early on against Villa in the Champions League qualification clash, Rosenior’s side roared back as Joao Pedro claimed a hat-trick and Cole Palmer also got on the scoresheet to claim an impressive 4-1 victory.

READ MORE: Joao Pedro, Chelsea teammate shame Shearer and Aston Villa in Champions League race

The result leaves Chelsea fifth, a position likely to be good enough to earn a place in the Champions League next season, but just three points behind Aston Villa in fourth and Manchester United in third after the Red Devils fell to a dramatic defeat to Newcastle at St James’ Park.

With Chelsea 2-1 up at the break the Blues players engaged in a huddle in the centre circle which encroached into Villa’s half and infuriated the hosts. Amadou Onana and Ollie Watkins were particularly upset.

Asked what the purpose of the caper was, Steve McManaman was confused on commentary.

“I have no idea,” he said. “I think it’s ridiculous to be very honest. Nowadays with the psychological gains to be made everyone’s coming up with a new silly idea and this is one of them.”

When asked if the antics were his doing, Rosenior said: “No, it wasn’t. The idea came from the players, and I really like it because they’re showing unity and togetherness and spirit, and I think you need that.

“Before anything, you start talking about tactics or systems, you need a group of players willing to run and fight for each other, and in my time, I have to say, there’s not been one game where I can say they haven’t given everything or I was disappointed with their application, and that bodes well.

“They’re a good group, they’re a tight group, they enjoy each other’s company, and that’s half the battle.

“For sure, you’re going to have setbacks in your season, whether that’s dropping points, whether that’s losing games that you shouldn’t, whereas conceding the first goal,” he said.

“The maturity of the team, the quality that we played with, it can be better, for sure. But in terms of the spirit and what you want to see in a team, I was really, really pleased with that tonight.”