Chelsea made to battle before easing past Morecambe

Chelsea were made to wait for the floodgates to open as League Two Morecambe put up dogged resistance before going down 5-0 in the FA Cup.

There were periods in the first half when the 87 places separating these sides in the pyramid could easily be forgotten, the team currently 23rd in League Two leaving Enzo Maresca’s Champions League chasers puzzling over how they would pick their way through to round four.

That two of the five goals were blasted in from outside the penalty area by reserve defender Tosin Adarabioyo gave a sense of how short on inspiration Chelsea were for much of this match, though the 27-year-old deserved credit for showing initiative to break the deadlock late in the first half as the crowd grew nervous.

The natural order soon took over. Christopher Nkunku scored to make it 2-0 having earlier missed a penalty, and there were two goals also for Joao Felix in a rare start, but Morecambe departed knowing they had made Chelsea sweat.

They did not give Maresca’s side the first half they had expected. From the moment Filip Jorgensen fumbled a strike from the visitors’ Ben Tollitt after five minutes, an uneasiness settled on Chelsea suggesting their four-match winless run would take some getting out of their system.

They were not without early chances. After Tosin had headed against the post from a corner, defender Yann Songo’o’s ludicrous handball, which would not have looked out of place on the volleyball court, gave Nkunku the chance to open the scoring from the penalty spot.

Goalkeeper Harry Burgoyne, taking advantage of the absence of VAR and striding a clear foot off his goal line, absolved his captain with a save that will live in the memories of Morecambe supporters gathered behind his goal.

Felix drew an outstanding fingertip stop from the buoyant Burgoyne when he drilled low towards the corner from 25 yards, but Chelsea looked short of ideas. When Axel Disasi lumped a pass artlessly out of play after 30 minutes, the first murmurs of frustration could be heard from among home fans.

The tension was pricked finally when Callum Jones deflected Tosin’s strike inside the post to send Chelsea in at the break with a degree of feeling that the mission was under control.

Thereafter they had things their own way. Nkunku knocked in the rebound after Burgoyne saved Renato Veiga’s strike, doubling the advantage five minutes after half-time.

Tosin stunned Stamford Bridge and seemingly also himself by leathering in from outside the box for the second time in the match, this time from further out and requiring nothing by way of a deflection as it fizzed past Burgoyne.

Perhaps inevitably the defender’s every touch thereafter was greeted with howls of “shoot” from home fans even at one stage when midway inside his own half.

The fourth goal came from a more likely source, Felix doing what supporters have seen too little of since his return to west London and placing the ball low into the corner from 25 yards.

The Portugal international was by now entirely in the mood and showed it by bending in the best goal of the bunch to make it 5-0.

Maresca: We need to protect James

There was further good news for Maresca with Reece James and Romeo Lavia surviving unscathed on their first starts since returning from injury.

Both were withdrawn at half-time at the start of what the head coach said would be a managed reintroduction to the first team.

Maresca said: “It was just to protect them. The idea was to play for 45 minutes. Hopefully we can start from there and build some physical condition and allow them to be with us for the rest of the season.

“The idea is slow to build the right condition, especially for Reece, you have to be a bit more careful. The good thing is they both played 45 minutes with no problem. Now hopefully we can start to help them to build the right condition.”

What’s coming up?