Alvaro Morata scored a classy hat-trick as Chelsea made short work of beating Stoke 4-0 to keep up the pressure on the Premier League leaders on Saturday.
Having taken four points from home games against Arsenal and Manchester United, Stoke could hardly have anticipated their terrible start when they conceded on 81 seconds to a neat finish from Morata, his fourth goal of the season and first with his boot.
Having scored his first three goals for his new club with his head, the €68 million signing from Real Madrid netted all three goals with his feet in the Potteries and he might have added to his total from two late chance
But without three defenders including Kurt Zouma, Stoke struggled to stifle Chelsea’s counter-attacks and conceded again after half-an-hour when Darren Fletcher mistakenly chested the ball into the path of Pedro, whose right-foot shot gave keeper Jack Butland no chance.
Chelsea wrapped up victory with 12 minutes remaining thanks to more dreadful Stoke defending and another fine Morata finish.
Morata then missed two chances to add to Stoke’s misery, firing wide from eight yards then failing to force a Willian cross over the line.
