Chelsea scored six goals in the first half alone against Armenian side Noah at Stamford Bridge on Thursday night, eventually winning 8-0 to go top of the League Conference standings.
Enzo Maresca made plenty of changes for this one, using his famously massive squad and even handed 18-year-old Cobham graduate Tyrique George a first senior start.
Chelsea simply stunned Noah in the early stages. Center back Tosin Adarabioyo scored the opener from a corner, his first goal for the club. From the start, Noah lost the ball to Marc Guiu, who proceeded to double the lead with his first Chelsea target
Another corner five minutes later presented the third, as Axel Disasi got his head on Enzo Fernández’s delivery. Having set up the opener for Tosin, Fernández completed his hat-trick of assists midway through the first half when he threaded a through ball for Joao Felix to finish
Mykhailo Mudryk capitalized on Chelsea’s clear superiority to get a goal of confidence to his name, before Felix got his second off the mark late in the half.
Six goals to the good when the half-time whistle blew.
Chelsea eased off the gas a bit once the second half started, understandably, although Maresca resisted the temptation to make radical changes and kept everyone but Fernández on the pitch.
Christopher Nkunku had scored four in four Conference League games this season (including the knockout stages) before kick-off and was not about to miss the action. He grabbed Chelsea’s seventh midway through the second half by munching on his own rebound, before adding an eighth for good measure from the penalty spot. Some fans online immediately criticized the Frenchman for keeping the responsibilities of the penalties and not giving Felix the chance of a hat-trick.
That was one League of Conferences record for the biggest margin of victory in the competition’s short history, as well as Chelsea’s biggest win since beating Aston Villa 8-0 in December 2012.
