Antonio Conte was his usual animated self on the touchline, pacing up and down and waving his arms around, yet this was one of those afternoons when the Chelsea manager could have put his feet up, sat back and enjoyed the show as the outstanding Álvaro Morata took centre stage with a superb hat-trick.
Chelsea’s record signing took his tally to an impressive seven goals in seven games in the process and it felt fitting that he should deliver such an outstanding performance at the end of a week when the Premier League champions finally said goodbye to Diego Costa. Diego who?
Few at Chelsea will be pining for Costa’s rampaging presence up front if Morata continues to play with this sort of finesse while also displaying such composure in front of goal. Chelsea’s supporters have already fallen in love with the man Conte described 24 hours earlier as the type of person a father would be happy for his daughter to marry.
Morata’s name was once again ringing out from the away end in the second half, just as it had at Leicester a couple of weeks ago, only this time the words were far more palatable, suggesting that the striker is better than Harry Kane rather than a crude reference to “Yids”.
Time will tell whether Morata can score as prolifically as Kane in the Premier League but on what we have seen so far the 24-year-old will give the England international a run for his money when it comes to the golden boot. Morata’s second here was particularly special and he could easily have ended up with four or five.
Pedro scored the other goal in a comfortable Chelsea victory that provided good preparation for a crucial week with Conte’s players travelling to Atlético Madrid in the Champions League on Wednesday and take on Manchester City at Stamford Bridge three days later.
It is a safe bet that neither Atlético nor City will be as obliging opponents as Stoke, who contributed to their own downfall by making what Mark Hughes described as “catastrophic errors”. With two central defenders injured, and Kurt Zouma ineligible to play against his parent club, Hughes was entitled to point to mitigating circumstances, but that was still no excuse for the way Stoke gifted Chelsea their first two goals.
Morata scored the first, with 81 seconds on the clock, and that set the tone. Hughes felt aggrieved that Marcos Alonso escaped with a talking to from Mike Dean, the referee, rather than a second yellow card early in the second half and also suggested that the scoreline flattered Chelsea. That may have been so to an extent, yet there was still no escaping the gulf in class, epitomised by Morata’s display up front.
“Álvaro performed very well,” Conte said. “He scored a hat-trick and for a striker that is very important. Don’t forget the last game against Nottingham Forest the same happened with [Michy] Batshuayi. It means that we create the chances for our strikers to take. I am pleased with his performance and I’m pleased with the performance of the team.”
Conte, rather dubiously, claimed that it was a tactical decision to take Alonso off shortly after the Stoke supporters bayed for the left wing-back to be dismissed following a foul on Mame Diouf. Either way, it was a wise call and prevented Alonso from running the risk of becoming the fourth Chelsea player to be sent off in six league games this season.
By that stage Chelsea were two goals to the good. Morata’s first came about after Bruno Martins Indi, who limped off with a groin strain in the second half to add to Stoke’s defensive woes, was caught ball-watching. Running on to César Azpilicueta’s floated pass, Morata took a touch before prodding coolly past Jack Butland.
Pedro then doubled Chelsea’s lead when he pounced on Darren Fletcher’s mistake and struck a beautifully placed shot from the edge of the area across Butland and into the far corner.
Although Fletcher should have pulled a goal back after the restart with a free header from Xherdan Shaqiri’s free-kick, there was always a sense that Chelsea had another gear. They found it when Tiémoué Bakayoko charged down Glen Johnson’s clearance and Morata scampered clear on the left. Leaving Fletcher in his wake, Morata showed wonderful composure as he delightfully lifted the ball into the corner with the angle against him.
A tap-in from another Azpilicueta assist completed the rout and Morata’s hat-trick. “He’s a top-quality striker, clearly,” said Hughes.
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