Villa are undoubtedly the feel-good story of the season so far and the supporters are drinking it all in. They celebrated like Emery’s men had actually won the league at the full-time whistle and who could blame them?

It was no surprise that Emery was far more measured, as he said: “Of course we are performing very well, we are in a row winning matches, we are competing fantastic. We competed first half fantastic and we were struggling. But the second half more or less like this season we are progressively getting better and being humble.”

Asked directly if he believes his team are in the title race, Emery added: “No, 38 matches. If it finishes tomorrow then Arsenal is winning the league. There are still another 20 matches to play.”

At least his touchline ban spared Maresca from a verbal volley from Cole Palmer, who made dissatisfaction at being substituted with the score level clear to the home bench.

Palmer let his anger out at one of Maresca’s coaches before taking his seat in the dugout. He had to watch from the touchline as Watkins headed Villa’s winner six minutes from full time.

Third-placed Villa have now beaten Arsenal, second-placed Manchester City and Chelsea during the first half of a campaign in which they failed to win any of their first five games. The comeback win at Stamford Bridge means Emery’s team have won a staggering 18 points from losing positions.

Next up for Villa is a trip to the Emirates to face Arsenal, who they will take on without right-back Matty Cash and brilliant midfielder Boubacar Kamara, who will serve one-game bans after both collecting their fifth yellow cards of the season. But this Villa team just keeps finding ways to win.

Chelsea are now 10 points behind Villa and will wonder how on earth they did not at least take a point from a game which they completely dominated for the opening 45 minutes and took the lead through João Pedro.