This was a routine victory against the league’s bottom side who failed to register a shot on target, thought it took what felt an age for the hosts to shake themselves loose and get firing.

When finally they did, the goals flowed freely. Malo Gusto headed his first career goal early in the second half, Joao Pedro rammed home his second in two league matches and Pedro Neto – arguably Chelsea’s player of the season so far – knocked in the third from the impressive Alejandro Garnacho’s cross.

Enzo Maresca had faced criticism for his squad rotation policy having made 85 changes in total this season, and he bullishly kept up the trend here in making eight more from the draw with Qarabag – though he could fairly point to just one alteration from last weekend’s 1-0 win over Tottenham.

That was

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