Chelsea hammered a hapless Stoke City side at Stamford Bridge as we leapt above Manchester United into 2nd place as the Red Devils drew 0-0 against Southampton.
Stoke were without 5 defenders and were struggling to even field a decent side but goals from Antonio Rudiger, Danny Drinkwater and Pedro, all before the 23rd minute, more or less ended the game in the first half itself.
Second half goals from Willian and Davide Zappacosta ended the rout but it was apparent that we will have tougher tests than this in the days to come.
The result did provide us with some sort of break from the constant news of Eden Hazard deciding to move away from the side and join Real Madrid. Now we can focus on the remaining games from the crazy festive period and hopefully, we will put up dominant performances such as this for the rest of the season as well.
That was 5 wins in our last 6 matches and even if we cannot catch Manchester City, we could still finish on a high and win a trophy or two.
Twitter was lit up with a number of great reactions and here are just a few of them from the game.
I ask Conte if Morata needs to work on his 1v1 finishing. He says he’d be more worried if his striker wasn’t getting the chances in the first place #cfc
— Liam Twomey (@liam_twomey) December 30, 2017
Rudiger has played just 908 mins this season but has scored 3 goals in all competition.
1 less than Paul Pogba who has played 2,042 mins of football. #cfc
— Chelsea FC Fan Club (@ConteBlueArmy) December 30, 2017
Hazard with some post game training on the Stamford Bridge turf. He’ll be fresh for Arsenal #CHESTK #CFC pic.twitter.com/vUonIuMmqB
— Nizaar Kinsella (@NizaarKinsella) December 30, 2017
Chelsea 2017 Top Goalscorers:
1. Hazard (16)
2. Pedro (14)
2. Willian (14)
4. Batshuayi (13)
5. Morata (12)What a year it has been. #CFC pic.twitter.com/1ynpHaupjE
— Mod (@HazardChaos) December 30, 2017
Thibaut Courtois on 11 clean sheets now. Ahead of both Ederson and David De Gea. Both of those keepers have a game in hand in the race for the golden glove though #CHESTK #CFC
— Nizaar Kinsella (@NizaarKinsella) December 30, 2017
🇪🇸 😮 21 of Chelsea’s goals this season have been scored by Spanish players.
More than any other team in Europe’s top 5 leagues… including La Liga#CHESTK #CFC pic.twitter.com/YZu1WsGDmT
— The Sportsman (@TheSportsman) December 30, 2017
FT: Chelsea 5-0 Stoke City… 3 points in the bag ✔
2nd on the table ✔
Clean sheet ✔
Didn’t rely on Hazard ✔
Brilliant performance ✔
I love you mighty Chelsea!!! I’m proud of you always!!! #CFC4LIFE #CFC— Bruno Khanyile (@BrunoKhanyile) December 30, 2017
4 wins in 5 in the Premier League! #CFC pic.twitter.com/DYs1bslFSJ
— ⒹⓎⓁ (@BakayokoChelsea) December 30, 2017
Great win to close out 2017. Best bit about it is five different scorers. Great to see Drinkwater and Zappacosta open their Premier League accounts. #CFC
— Garry Hayes (@garryhayes) December 30, 2017
Davide Zappacosta becomes the first Italian player to score a premier league goal for Chelsea since Gianfranco Zola. (April 2003) #CFC
— Bridge News (@cfc_wale) December 30, 2017
It could be 7/8 if we got Diego Costa upfront , but 3 point more important , well done !
— Muhammad Rifki (@MR_alghifari) December 30, 2017
