Antonio Conte guided Chelsea to a 4-0 win over Stoke. (Reuters)

Mark Hughes has fired a dig at Antonio Conte’s stalling tactics after Chelsea’s 4-0 victory over Stoke City on Saturday.

The Premier League champions ran out comfortable winners at the Britannia Stadium as Alvaro Morata scored a hat-trick, while Pedro netted his first league goal of the campaign.

Chelsea were perhaps fortunate to not be reduced to 10 men in the second half after Marcos Alonso escaped a second booking for a foul on Mame Biram Diouf shortly after receiving a yellow card for bringing down Joe Allen.

And Hughes has complained that Conte and Chelsea looked to stifle the momentum of the match as they looked to close out the victory.

‘Second half… Chelsea do what they do, they are very much a reflection of their manager in terms of managing games, they were quite happy at 2-0,’ said the Stoke City boss.

Mark Hughes was annoyed with Antonio Conte’s tactics. (AFP/Getty Images)
Marcos Alonso escaped a red card for Chelsea. (Reuters)

‘I think the management of the game could’ve been asked questions of, certainly by the referee, I think he allowed them to stop the game and stop all momentum.

‘He made a call in terms of Alonso who could’ve been sent off – should’ve done in my view.

‘I think their manager [Conte] obviously agreed he was lucky because he took him off within seconds of him getting away with the second offence.’

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