Chelsea moved to the top of the Premier League after thrashing Ronald Koeman’s Everton at Stamford Bridge.
Goals from Eden Hazard, Marcos Alonso and Diego Costa gave the Blues a commanding half time before second half strikes from Hazard and Pedro sealed a comprehensive victory.
The result sees Chelsea move to the top of the table following Manchester City’s 1-1 draw with Middlesbrough earlier in the day.
Antonio Conte’s side have clawed back the Citizens’ eight point advantage since the end of September, thanks to a run of five consecutive league victories, which followed their disappointing defeat away to Arsenal.
Everton remain in sixth place but the result leaves the Toffees with a single victory in their last six league games.
Hazard opened the scoring for Chelsea midway through the first half as he danced a past series of Everton defenders before finding the back of the net.
Maarten Stekelenburg could have done better with the Belgian midfielder’s strike but that mattered little to Hazard, who scored for a fourth consecutive Premier League game for the first time in his career.
And Stekelenburg had another moment to forget only 28 seconds later as Alonso doubled Chelsea’s lead. Pedro’s low cross evaded the waiting Costa but Alonso was waiting to drill the ball through the legs of Stekelenburg.
Approaching half time, Costa and Chelsea ended the game as a contest as the Spaniard rifled home from close range. Nemanja Matic flicked on a corner delivery before Costa clinically dispatched the ball into the bottom left corner.
Chelsea continued their goal rampage in the second half as Hazard scored his second of the game following some fine combination play with Pedro.
Hazard cut in from the right flank after a quick one-two with Pedro before targeting Everton centre-back Ashley Williams. The Welsh captain failed to control Hazard as he fired past Stekelenburg to cap off an outstanding attacking move.
The action was becoming increasingly hard to watch for the travelling Everton fans and it got even worse with 25 minutes left to play.
Costa bullied Phil Jagielka off the ball before finding the rampant Hazard who saw his shot saved by Stekelenburg. But Pedro was the quickest to react as he left behind a number of Toffees defenders before turning the ball into an empty net.
The home side nearly added a sixth in the closing stages as Oscar’s clever pass released Costa behind the Everton defence. The striker raced through and looked set to score, but Williams managed to scramble back as he denied Costa his second of the game.
Chelsea capped off a hugely impressive performance by bringing on captain John Terry for the final seven minutes as he took the armband off his replacement, Gary Cahill.
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Source: talkSPORT