Chelsea coasted home to a 3-0 victory against Leicester City, as Marcos Alonso unexpectedly took over from where Diego Costa left off, scoring twice at the King Power Stadium.
Costa’s absence was the main talking point leading up to the game, but his physical presence was not missed, and despite looking shaky at the back.
Chelsea dominated play and broke the deadlock early on when Alonso curled the ball into the bottom corner from an Eden Hazard lay off.
Leicester continued to battle and should really have capitalised upon Gary Cahill and David Luiz’s indecisiveness at the back.
Alonso then put the game to bed in the second half, again scoring just six minutes after kick-off, this time his 18-yard piledriver deflected past a hapless Kasper Schmeichel – becoming only the third Chelsea defender in history to score a brace after Branislav Ivanovic and John Terry.
Fellow Spaniard Pedro continued his rich vein of form on 70 minutes, as he headed in from Willian’s deflected cross.
Chelsea are now seven points clear as it stands, with Liverpool taking on Manchester United on Sunday.
