Premier League: Aston Villa beat Chelsea to equal club record with 11th straight win

London: Ollie Watkins stepped off the bench to help Aston Villa complete a comeback victory against Chelsea in the Premier League at Stamford Bridge, equalling a club record of 11 consecutive wins in the process.

The visitors were second best in the first half, trailing to a Joao Pedro goal at the break, but the introduction of Watkins sparked Villa into life offensively, and he equalised shortly before the hour mark.

Several chances came and went for the transformed Villans before Watkins buried a header from Youri Tielemans’ corner to send the travelling support wild with seven minutes left.

The result tied the club’s record for consecutive wins, which was set in 1897 and achieved again in 1914, keeping Unai Emery’s team just three points off the top of the table heading into a game against pacesetters Arsenal on Tuesday. 

The victory moves third-place Villa back within three points of Premier League leaders Arsenal, who they face next in a huge clash at Emirates Stadium on Tuesday, while Chelsea are now three points adrift of the top four.

After the win Villa manager Unai Emery, said, “We kept the same game plan we had at the first half, but in the first half they were playing fantastic. They were dominating. We couldn’t get the ball easily. We were defending low, we were defending well.

Skipper Martin Odegaard scored his first goal of the season to help Arsenal prevail over Brighton 2-1 in a home match and moved back to the top of the Premier League table.

Odegaard powered home from just outside the area before Georgino Rutter flicked into his own net from a Declan Rice set piece to double the Gunners’ advantage. But Brighton fought back and levelled the score through a Diego Gomez goal in the 64th-minute. It took a stunning David Raya stop to deny Yankuba Minteh and preserve the precious three points, and take Arsenal to 42 points from 18 matches and preserved their two-point advantage over Manchester City.

Defending champion Liverpool closed out 2025 with a 2-1 victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Premier League, moving to 32 points as they remained among the top five in the table.

A quickfire double late in the first half from Ryan Gravenberch and Florian Wirtz – his first competitive goal for the club – put the Reds in command of the festive Anfield affair. Santiago Bueno pulled one back for Wolves shortly after half-time, but Arne Slot’s men held on to record their fourth consecutive win in all competitions.

In another match on the busy day, a hat-trick by Kevin Schade and Djordje Petrovic’s own goal saw Brentford defeat Bournemouth 4-1 at Gtech Community Stadium. Antoine Semenyo scored for the Cherries, but Brentford made it two successive wins to end the calendar year. Agencies

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