David Villa fired a hat-trick to boost his chances of a £25million move to Chelsea and then paid tribute to another Spanish striker who has already made a huge impact in the Premier League.

The Valencia forward is one of the players Chelsea are considering as a replacement for Didier Drogba, who seems set to join AC Milan.

If Villa does move to Stamford Bridge he will hope to emulate the success Fernando Torres has had at Liverpool following his £26.5m move from Atletico Madrid last summer.

Torres scored 33 goals in his debut season at Anfield but has struggled to repeat that form for Spain and was substituted in the 54th minute of yesterday's Group D opener in Innsbruck.

That was the third international in just over a week where Torres has been taken off early, with coach Luis Aragones substituting the striker at half-time in both friendlies against the United States and Peru.

Villa, however, thanked Torres for the major role he played in his hat-trick and showed his support for the Liverpool striker by rushing to the bench to embrace him when he rounded off his treble.

"The first two goals were with the help of Torres," said Villa.

"You saw what happened with the first one and with the second he opened the space so [Andres] Iniesta could make the pass to me," added Villa.

"I think he had an important game, he's a key player to us and I wanted to dedicate that third goal to make him happy."

Villa's treble, with the goals coming in the 20th, 45th and 75th minutes, ensured Spain got off to a flying start in their bid to win their first European Championships since 1964.

That performance earned Villa the man-of-the-match award, but the Valencia star was more pleased with the fact that it took Spain a step closer to the quarter-finals.

"More than anything I am happy with the three points that give us a lot of options to continue-to the next phase, and of course I am very happy to have scored the goals as well," said Villa, whose role in the Spain side and compatibility with Torres was an area of debate heading into the tournament.

"My aim is continue helping the national team, to work hard to try and score more goals. I want to play as much as possible."

Spain coach Aragones spoke glowingly about both his strikers, saying: "Villa has played very well, he scored three goals and could have scored more.

"Torres also did a good job, especially in the first two goals. I am happy with the team."

Despite the euphoria over the victory, there was a note of caution from Cesc Fabregas.

Two years ago Spain got their World Cup campaign off to a similarly impressive start with a 4-0 rout of Ukraine only to see their title hopes end in a 3-1 last-16 defeat to France.

"We have to learn from mistakes like at the last World Cup when everyone thought we were going to win because of our victory against Ukraine," said the Arsenal midfielder, who completed the scoring in the 4-1 rout. "We don't want to get too excited and just go game by game and that's how we will win."

Russia coach Guus Hiddink famously got one over on the Spanish in the 2002 World Cup when his South Korea side won a quarter-final clash on penalties.

There was little chance of Hiddink's latest side achieving a similar scalp once Villa had taken the game by the scruff of the neck, but the Dutchman believes his inexperienced team could take a lot of out of the game.

"We had our chances, but we were too naive and ended up being punished because Spain have players who can do that," Hiddink said.

"In any case, I think that we can learn from this lesson. There are two games remaining and I have told my players that although it has been a heavy result, we can still bounce back if we learn from the match."