Chelsea Pummel Norwich At Stamford Bridge

Chelsea showed no mercy on Norwich City's plight when the Canaries visited on Saturday, pummeling Daniel Farke's side with seven goals and keeping another clean sheet.

The Blues were starting the game missing their two recognized strikers, Romelu Lukaku and Timo Werner, who both got injured in their Champions League game against Malmo in midweek, giving Kai Havertz an opportunity to lead the Chelsea attack.

Thomas Tuchel's side look to have been barely reliant on their strikers for goals this season having gotten 9 of their 19 goals from their defenders, so the absence of the strikers may not have been too much felt.

Accordingly, they struck in the 8th minute as Grant Hanley's poor clearance didn't travel far, allowing Jorginho to win the ball and play it to Mason Mount, who hit a low shot past Tim Krul for the opener.

The lead was doubled 10 minutes later when Matteo Kovacic sent a defence-splitting pass into Callum Hudson-Odoi, who slotted into the net. Chelsea got off to a bright start.

Chelsea dug Norwich's grave deeper by getting their third with about three minutes to the break. Fine work by Mount to release the overlapping Reece James, who dinked his effort over the on-rushing Tim Krul.

It felt like there was no break for Chelsea as they strode on from where they left, making life miserable for their visitors. They, however, had to wait till the 57th minute to get their fourth goal.

Ben Chillwell, who has now scored in his last three games finding the back of the net. Kovacic providing a well-time pass to match the run of the left back, whose shot back across the face of goal settled in the botom right corner.

The day got more miserable for the Canaries as they conceded another goal five minutes after the fourth. A bit of hard luck for Max Aarons, who deflected Hudson Odoi's cross beyond his goalkeeper for Chelsea's fifth.

The impending defeat got more excruciating for Farke's men when Ben Gibson received his second yellow card in the space of 10 minutes for a bad tackle on James.

Substitutes, Hakim Ziyech and Ross Barkley both had chances to add to Chelsea's tally having come on in the last 20 minutes of regulation time. The former saw his effort, after cutting inside go wide, while the latter's effort was well saved by Krul. Moments later, Ziyech forced Krul to another save, tipping the dipping ball against the crossbar.

Tuchel's men were hungry for more goals. Penalty shouts filled the air in the 85th minute of the game as a goal-bound Antonio Rudiger shot seemed to have been blocked by the arm of Mathias Normann. The penalty was given after VAR review and Mount stepped up to convert the resulting spotkick.

Mount would complete his hat-trick in the first minute of added time when Ruben Loftus-Cheek broke away and into Norwich's defence. He has the opportunity to shoot but decided to cut it back for the loitering Mount, who side-steps the ball into the back of the net.

Concluding Thoughts

It was a whitewash of a performance for Chelsea, who dominated the game, expectedly, from the blast of the whistle. They kept Norwich in their own half for almost all of the game and wasn't a surprise that Mendy had nothing to do in goal. It was almost like Chelsea were playing without a goalkeeper.

Another impressive outing for Tuchel's men who have now extended their lead at the summit to four points and their 17th clean sheet under Tuchel.

Again, Chelsea proved how well they can be without a recognized striker, based on the will and deepth of their squad.

More misery for Norwich as their struggle to remain up gets tougher. It was just a summary of what their season has been so far only managing two two points so far coming in two barren draws.

Daniel Farke will know that the task at hand has become more herculean and needs to find a solution quickly if they want to be in the top-flight next season.