Chelsea ease to Stoke win

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Alvaro Morata netted a hat-trick as Chelsea cruised past Stoke City 4-0 in their Premier League clash at Stamford Bridge on Saturday afternoon.Stoke City 0 Chelsea 4Morata on target early onPedro adds a secondMorata claims two more in the second half

Match summary

Alvaro Morata opened the scoring with barely two minutes played before Pedro's second on the half hour mark.

And the in-form Spaniard could have had a handful more but ultimately bagged his hat-trick with goals in the 77th and 82nd minutes.

Full report

Morata needed one touch to get Chelsea up and running against Stoke as he latched onto a long ball forward from Cesar Azpilicueta before slotting the ball past Jack Butland.

Stoke then came close to getting back into this game as Xherdan Shaqiri cut the ball back for Mame Biram Diouf, who dallied on the ball to allow Azpilicueta to clear.

Thibaut Courtois was then quickly off his line to deny Joe Allen as Willian began to find his feet with some incisive running and balls into dangerous areas.

Chelsea though were two goals up on 30 minutes as Pedro pounced on an under-hit back pass from Darren Fletcher before racing through and curling his shot home.

Shaqiri fired a 34th minute free-kick into the Chelsea wall while Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting was just unable to turn a corner from the Swiss attacker on target.

And the Potters had the last real chance of the first half with an overhead kick from Diouf that flew just wide.

There was little in the way of goalmouth action at the start of the second period until Allen volleyed over on 54 minutes after a half-cleared free-kick.

Chelsea responded by floating a number of crosses into the Stoke box as Shaqiri drew a comfortable save from Courtois on the hour mark.

Peter Crouch, just on for Jese, did well to knock a ball down for Diouf, but his subsequent effort was fired well over.

Gary Cahill, who had not long earlier come on for Marcos Alonso, was lucky to get away with upending Choupo-Moting in the box, as the referee waved play on.

The home side appeared increasingly content to sit on their lead with the match winding down, as Shaqiri and Allen looked to combine, only for Tiemoue Bakayoko to make a super challenge and clear the danger.

Stoke then really should have scored on 72 minutes as Shaqiri picked out Fletcher in the six-yard box, but he failed to get any contact on the ball ahead of a Bruno Martins Indi shot into the side-netting. 

And after Mark Hughes withdrew Stoke's only recognised defender in Martins Indi for Ibrahim Afellay, Morata picked up a gift of possession from Glen Johnson on the half-way line before driving forward and netting his second of the day with a composed finish, with 77 minutes on the clock.

And Morata had his hat-trick when he picked up Azpilicueta's chested pass from a floated Cesc Fabregas ball, to poke home from close range.

Morata fired just wide with the game winding down before Johnson clear off his line from a Morata touch from a Victor Moses cross for the last real piece of action from this fascinating encounter.