Who needs Diego Costa when you have Marcos Alonso?
Alonso ended a miserable week for the Blues with a fine brace which humbled champions Leicester City this evening at the King Power Stadium.
A Pedro header finished off Leicester City this evening which extended the west Londoners lead at the top of the Premier League by seven points.
Top of the pile Chelsea's season seems set for implosion when stories of a changing room rift between star striker Diego Costa and the Chelsea medical department emerged on Friday night.
The backdrop to the alleged argument surrounded Costa's assertion he was injured.
While allegations of a potential high-profile move to China surfaced at the same time. Together the recipe for disaster was present.
Costa did not travel to Leicester and the club told LWN Sport that Costa did injure himself on Tuesday and did not train the rest of the week.
Whatever the veracity of the situation, it remained for the players who were selected, to put in a professional performance and they did - in style.
There was a brilliant save by Thibaut Courtois's at his near post in the first minute from a shot by Ahmed Musa after he sliced past Cesar Azpilicueta on the right, following a quick counterattack set up by Jaime Vardy.
But four minutes later the visitors took the lead. A simple free kick by Azpilicueta on the right was not cleared and first Pedro and then Eden Hazard set up Marcos Alonso, who cooly slotted home a curling right footer past a static Kasper Schmeichel
Leicester responded well with a fine break by Marc Albrighton on the right of 17 minutes.. He sent in a blistering cross which was only glanced on by in-running Danny Drinkwater who saw the ball inch past Courtois's goal.
A cheeky free kick by Chelsea almost saw Pedro side foot the ball home for number two with three minutes on the clock. But the David Luiz, Hazard-inspired effort went just wide.
There were no changes at half-time by waiter side.
But it was a complete repeat of the opening with the visitors doubling their lead in the first five minutes of the restart.
A simple cross from the right byline by Willian was not cleared effectively and Alonso, on the edge of the box lashed in a fierce left-footer from the edge of the Leicester penalty area and after a deflection by Wes Morgan, the ball inched past the finger-tips of Schmeichel.
Spanish defender, Alonso, a £23million signing from Fiorentina in the summer, doubled his season's tally.
Alonso almost scored his hat-trick when a lofted byline cross by N'Golo Kante was met beautifully by Alonso on the far apex of the Leicester area. His stunning curled volley just inched marginally wide of a beaten Schmeichel but crucially also his right upright.
Then with 70 minutes left number three came from the head of Pedro who looped the ball over Wes Morgan and into an empty net from close range after a brilliant back-heel flick found William who pitched the return ball perfectly for the man-of-the match Spain midfielder to put the game firmly to bed.
Chelsea now face Hull City next weekend.
Chelsea:
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Leicester
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Referee
Ends