Chelsea scored four second half goals to rout a youthful Manchester City side and move into the last eight of the FA Cup.
Given Chelsea’s calamitous Premier League title defence, the FA Cup remains their most realistic route to silverware this season, and their full strength side proved to be as superior on the pitch as they looked on paper.
Chelsea dominated the first half and the superb Fabregas crafted the opener, which eventually came after his ball to Eden Hazard was hooked into the box for Diego Costa to throw his head at from close range.
But a City side with five teenagers, including Tosin Adarabioyo, Manu Garcia and Kelechi Iheanacho, shocked Stamford Bridge when they levelled less than two minutes after going behind, with David Faupala deflecting in an Iheanacho cross that Cesar Azpilicueta had tried to clear.
Chelsea flew out of the blocks at the start of the second half though, with Willian exchanging passes with Hazard and finishing crisply into the bottom corner.
Gary Cahill added a third with a shot that City’s woeful reserve goalkeeper Willy Caballero should have kept out, before Hazard joined the party with a fine free-kick, which had Caballero wrong-footed when, once again, he should have done better.
Substitute Oscar missed a casual penalty that should never have been awarded for Martin Demichelis's shoulder-to-shoulder challenge with Bertrand Traore, who got on the scoresheet himself late on with a fortunate header that looped in over Caballero’s head.
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