Chelsea remains clear at the top of the PL with Antonio Rudiger, N’Golo Kante and Christian Pulisic all on target in a classy 3-0 victory to heap more misery on Leicester.
Chelsea’s victory was embarrassingly one-sided and to rub into the wound for Leicester fans, it was two of their heroes who were instrumental.
N’Golo Kante, part of the 2016 Foxes title team, scored the visitor’s second goal to make the result a formality after only 28 minutes.
Ben Chilwell set up the opener and was excellent throughout along with his fellow Chelsea wing-back Reece James.
Regardless, Chelsea is top of the table and have won their last four away games in all competitions without conceding. Indeed, they haven’t been beaten outside Stamford Bridge in the league and the only player to score against them is Mo Salah from the penalty spot.
Brendan Rodgers decided to leave James Maddison and Kelechi Iheanacho on the bench to try and make a fight of it rather than a football match.
But the tactical plan backfired disastrously. Jonny Evans and Wilfried Ndidi gave fouls away in the opening minutes but they couldn’t stop Chelsea domination.
Antoni Rudiger headed Chelsea in front after 14 minutes and Kante took advantage of a backpedaling defense to make it 2-0.
By the time substitute Christian Pulisic added a third after 71 minutes, Leicester was imploring the final whistle to be blown.
Remarkably, Chelsea put the ball into their net three more times in the closing stages. They were all ruled out for offside but a final score line of 6-0 would have been a more accurate reflection of the game.
Chelsea welcomed back Mason Mount for their trip to the King Power after teeth problems while Rodgers gave a clue to his intentions by choosing midfield scuffler Boubakare Soumare to replace Tielemans.
It didn’t make any difference because Leicester couldn’t get anywhere near their opponents.
Chilwell had already burst forward and hit the top of the crossbar by the time the opening goal arrived.
It all started with the Chelsea press hurrying Caglar Soyuncu into conceding a throw. From there, Chelsea won a corner and Rudiger was able to beat Timothy Castagne’s challenge and flick in Chilwell’s delivery with his head despite facing away from goal.
Kante nearly added a second as Schmeichel blocked his shot with his legs and Mount floated a free-kick narrowly over after Daniel Amartey’s panicky trip on the dangerous Callum Hudson-Odoi.
There were plenty of groans from Leicester fans because of the way they were being dominated but things got even worse after 28 minutes.
Reece James switched a pass inside to Kante and the Frenchman couldn’t believe his luck as he advanced to the edge of the penalty area without a challenge.
Before Evans could decide whether he wanted to intervene or not, Kante thumped a left-footer past Schmeichel into the corner.
By half-time, Leicester – who are now four games without a win – still hadn’t managed a shot or corner. They were lucky to be only 2-0 down with Schmeichel’s stray pass inviting Hudson-Odoi to score and then Kai Havertz and Kante getting in each other’s way in the penalty area.
Rodgers was proactive in the interval by sending on James Maddison and Kelechi Iheanacho for Ademola Lookman and Harvey Barnes and there was a marginal improvement though one suspected Chelsea also dropped off the pace.
Amartey finally had a shot on goal for the home side saved by Mendy but Chelsea was still in cruise control. The movement of wing-backs James and Chilwell, in particular, was spellbinding with both men popping up in the center-forward position at times.
Chilwell had a shot tipped around the post by Schmeichel but the third goal did eventually arrive courtesy of two Tuchel substitutes.
Ziyech’s trickery in the box was far too good for Soyuncu and when he rolled a pass into the six-yard box Pulisic couldn’t miss from close range.