Phil Foden has an incredible gift for scoring goals, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola said after his young forward scored a sublime hat trick in a 4-1 thrashing of Aston Villa on Wednesday that kept them on course to retain the Premier League title.

With City's league-leading scorer Erling Haaland an unused substitute, Foden stepped up, finding a gap in Villa's wall with a superb free kick just before half-time to net his first goal.

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"His work ethic is amazing. He plays in central positions and has an incredible sense of goal -- he has goals in his veins and we have to use him," Guardiola said. "He has a natural talent, a gift, that is special."

The 23-year-old England international completed his hat track with two strikes seven minutes apart in the second half, including a rocket from 25 yards to move on to 21 goals across all competitions this season.

Guardiola said the sky was the limit for Foden.

"He can do whatever he wants," said the manager. "He is a really top-class player, we know it."

Guardiola also praised Foden's team mates, particularly Rodri who assisted on his second goal.

"And when we're right there [in the final third], [Foden] has the sense, he doesn't need a lot of touches to put the ball into the net," Guardiola said.

"Football it is the most difficult thing to score goals, the guy who puts the ball in the net. When you have that, it is a gift for the team, absolutely."

Although Haaland leads the league with 18 goals, Guardiola chose to rest his prolific striker along with midfielder Kevin De Bruyne with a league game looming on Saturday at Crystal Palace and a trip to Real Madrid for the first leg of their Champions League quarterfinal on Tuesday.

"The schedule is terrible, [games every] three days, three days, three days," Guardiola said. "We need fresh legs and we only played three days ago against Arsenal. We needed it because of the schedule so we needed the rest."

Arsenal climbed above Liverpool to claim top spot on 68 points with a 2-0 victory over Luton Town on Wednesday and City are third, level on 67 points with Liverpool who can move back to the summit with a home win over Sheffield United on Thursday.