Chelsea demolished a poor Maccabi Tel-Aviv 4-0 as The Blues looked to put their recent poor form behind them.
Willian, Oscar, Diego Costa and Cesc Fabregas grabbed the goals as the hosts eased to the top of Group G at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday.
It wasn’t all plain sailing for Chelsea. Eden Hazard who has come under intense scrutiny following the below-par run performances, started in similarly frustrating fashion when he blazed a penalty way over the crossbar in the sixth minute.
However Chelsea grew in confidence as the game went on and managed to convincingly avoid a shock defeat to the Israeli visitors.
Chelsea headed into the fixture on the back of collecting just four points from their opening five Premier League fixtures this season.
Jose Mourinho’s men responded strongly, with the impressive Willian opening the scoring before being withdrawn with a hamstring injury.
But his replacement quickly picked up where the Brazilian left off, Costa winning a penalty that Oscar converted before netting himself.
And the scoring was wrapped up in the 78th minute, Fabregas completing a good night’s work by slotting into an empty net.
Speaking after the game, Chelsea midfielder Cesc Fabregas told BT Sport “The players were feeling it, like every big club we need results and performances. We were dominant and hopefully that is the start of a big run.”
Chelsea skipper Gary Cahill continued, “We have had a difficult start but we know the players we have got. It is just what we need, the perfect lift. Arsenal on Saturday is time to make a statement.”
Jose Mourinho’s mood also improved as he told BT “I am happy with the result and the performance. The same way I was not in hell with bad results, I am not in heaven we won a game.”
He continued, “It was a good victory, you could see from minute one we were going to win the game. Missing the penalty was a good thing to test the team, we must be really strong to believe and the players have played very well, they showed a good attitude, good with the ball, it was a good victory.”
“Good individual performance helps the players’ self esteem and confidence, good collective performances are also good. I know some experts will say Maccabi are not a top team, I agree, but they are a Champions League team and to beat a team you need to play well and we played well. ”
“We were good in the different phases of the game.”
There are a lot of positives to take out of tonights performance from Chelsea’s point of view. Ruban Lofus-Cheek put in an outstanding display, Fabregas put a shift with a goal and an assist, The Blues kept a clean sheet and Diego Costa found the back of the net.
Chelsea are not yet out of trouble yet but this victory was certainly a positive result which was backed up by a positive performance which will help their confidence.
