Chelsea blitz Leeds for six in thrilling League Cup clash

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XABI ALONSO on Danny Welbeck: “he’s got three goals in this competition and is an example for the younger players”.

It was a quiet start to this cup-tie, with not much action in the opening 20 minutes. 

The most significant being a last-ditch tackle by Justin James preventing Estevao from having a favourable shot on goal.

Chelsea goalkeeper Mike Penders made a key save from a Tarik Muharemovic header in the 22nd minute after the ball ricocheted into the box and eventually fell to the Leeds centre half.

From the resulting Harry Wilson corner, Muharemovic this time got the better of Penders with his header beating the Chelsea keeper to give the away side the lead.

Sean Longstaff had a chance to make it 2-0 but skied his effort over the bar.

Alonso made quadruple change at half-time, however that didn’t matter for Chelsea as Leeds scored three minutes after the restart.

In front of the travelling fans, there was great work by Ethan Ampadu down the right, and his cross found Lukas Nmecha who played a clever flick into the path of Brenden Aaronson, the American finished the move to make it 2-0.

In the 52nd minute, Daniel James fouled Pep Chavarria in the box and substitute Cole Palmer powerfully struck into the bottom corner to pull one back for the hosts.

A Cup classic was well and truly on.

Three minutes later, Palmer got his second after fellow sub, Morgan Rogers, assisted Palmer first time with his hip from a Josh Acheampong throw in, which Chelsea number 10 smoothly curled into the bottom corner.

A few minutes later, sub and club captain Reece James nearly completed the turnaround after Palmer played him through, but James just missed the target.

However, on the 60th minute, Stamford Bridge erupted as Chelsea did complete the comeback.

Another one of the subs, Pedro Neto, got in on the act as Rogers provided another assist, Neto then finished similarly to Palmer, curling into the bottom corner.

Chelsea weren’t done as they scored their fourth in a 12-minute spell, Rogers completed a hat-trick of assists after great work down the right, crossing for Welbeck and the veteran striker calmly slotted through the legs of Zetterer.

Leeds then made things interesting as one of their subs Dominic Calvert-Lewin finished off a fine team spell making it 4-3 in the 75th minute.

Five minutes later, the home side restored their two-goal advantage as Rogers crossed from the right, Zetterer got a touch to it, but it fell into Valentin Barco’s path, the Argentine struck home to score his first Chelsea goal.

Welbeck then got his second and Chelsea’s sixth, as he smartly headed in Barco’s shot which was going wide.