Stan Collymore claims £40m Chelsea star is ‘the best I have seen this season’

Stan Collymore says Alejandro Garnacho is the best winger he has watched live this season and believes Chelsea can challenge Arsenal for the Premier League title next season.

Chelsea bounced back from their 2-1 defeat at Arsenal last Sunday with a 4-1 win away to Aston Villa on Wednesday night.

Joao Pedro scored a hat-trick, while Cole Palmer also found the net in an impressive victory for Liam Rosenior’s side at Villa Park.

Former Liverpool and England striker Collymore, who is a boyhood Villa supporter, hailed Chelsea’s performance against Unai Emery’s side as the best display he has seen ‘in quite a number of years’ at Villa Park.

‘In terms of Chelsea, I genuinely think they’re purchasing of all of these players was scattergun and madness but they had the money and the policy was very simple – let’s buy the very best young players, in some cases on the planet,’ Collymore told talkSPORT.

‘Now was it always going to be the case that it took two, three, four years to get up to speed? Not necessarily, some teams hit the ground very, very quickly.

‘But what I would say about the performance from Chelsea the other night at Villa Park is that’s the best team performance in B6 in quite a number of years.

‘And they are the most aligned, or they are the most alike, to the PSG team that won the Champions League last year of any Premier League team.

‘Now, it’s going to be a big jump to get the consistency week in week out with a manager who is going to be very much learning his trade as well along the way, but if they can, and if they stick to the principles of playing through the lines, really quick, inventive play, a No.10 in Cole Palmer who I hope genuinely takes some kind of form he had at Villa Park for the rest of the season in a Chelsea shirt and an England shirt, is that they could be a very, very persuasive title bet for the next couple of seasons.

‘They opened up Aston Villa at will at times. Villa not playing very well, it has to be said, but they did start and they did take the lead but the way that Chelsea responded and the type of footballers they’ve got, excellent technicians, players who can go past people.

‘You had Garnacho down the left-hand side, the best wide man performance I’ve seen in the flesh this season. [Malo] Gusto overlapping Reece James down the right, the movement of Joao Pedro, the calm of the midfield enforcer [Moises] Caicedo. It really was a top-drawer performance.

‘So I’m not getting carried away, I think Arsenal will win the title this season. As I’ve said, Arsenal can win the title in whatever way they see fit, and only Arsenal fans will care in terms of the way they’re playing.

‘But if Chelsea can keep everyone together and they can continuously forward momentum and get some crucial consistency, I think they could be an exceptional team moving forward.’

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