Mount rises to the top

THE game was four minutes old when we were treated to a full Thomas Tuchel meltdown. For those unfamiliar with the Chelsea manager in enraged mode, it is a John Cleese moment, arms whirling, face gurning with accompanying spasms of infuriated indignity. If there were a tree branch to hand, you could imagine him whacking his car roof, a la Basil Fawlty. He was yelling like a man tortured by imperfection.

His target? Callum Hudson-Odoi, 20 years old and often the subject of a Tuchel admonishment on the basis his talent is too great to be allowed to stagnate. His error? Not driving into the box to press the ball during an early attack.

‘Let’s be honest, we should not start pressing in the second minute if we can press in the first,’ said Tuchel by way of explanation.

And therein lies the key to a thrashing of abject Norwich. Tuchel smelt blood. The warm embrace he shared pre-match with compatriot Daniel Farke — they worked together at Borussia Dortmund — belied his cold ruthlessness. There would be no holding back against a wounded Norwich side, which was extraordinarily weak and malleable. It is going to be a long, dark winter in Norfolk.

Reece James would get the Hudson-Odoi treatment three minutes later, similarly for not driving on into the box. Never mind the defence, seemed to be the message. Goals are the thing when you are up against Norwich.

It was instructive. Chelsea are not here to play but to compete for the title. This felt like an exhibition match, akin to when the Harlem Globetrotters roll into town and some poor team are made to fulfil the role of hapless victims to allow the stars to strut their stuff.

The twist here was that the expensively imported stars were absent, with Romelu Lukaku and Timo Werner injured. In their absence, we got ‘Made in Chelsea’. Once Ruben Loftus-Cheek came on, half the team were Chelsea youth graduates. Mason Mount scored a hat-trick, HudsonOdoi, goaded pre-match by his manager for inconsistency, responded with a superb performance, with James and Ben Chilwell also scoring. An own goal from Max Aarons completed the magnificent seven. Remember the days when Chelsea were the epitome of the overseas all-stars, the first team to field a starting XI without a British player? Yesterday, all the scorers were English and all but Chilwell were former academy players. There was much to praise but inevitably Mount was the focus. His slow start to the season was predictable given his exploits in Euro 2020. Here he exploded into the game from the moment he drove home from the edge of the box to open the scoring.

Tuchel was rightly impressed. ‘The hat-trick for Mason is huge, a massive moment for him. He puts pressure on himself to score but he looks a little lighter and is playing with a bit more freedom in the last matches. We like his style, we like where he comes from, we like his personality. He’s a top player and a top guy.’

Not just Mount though, HudsonOdoi too. Eighteen minutes in, Antonio Rudiger brought the ball out of defence and fed Mateo Kovacic, who spied Hudson-Odoi. The weight of the pass split the defence. Yet it was the speed of Hudson-Odoi which made it, along with his touch and superb finish. Then James got in on the action four minutes before half-time, which owed a huge debt to Mount’s lovely drag back and the through-ball, which bamboozled Norwich. James was alert to the forward run, controlled the ball and struck it perfectly for 3-0.

The inevitable fourth goal came from Brandon Williams losing possession high up the pitch to James. Chelsea swept the ball across the pitch via Jorginho and Kovacic to Chilwell, who sized up his chance in the 57th minute and struck cleanly across goal and past Tim Krul from the edge of the box.

The fifth was another incisive run from Hudson-Odoi in the 62nd minute, crossing into the box and hitting Aarons, which was enough to fool Krul, who let the ball squirm past him.

Ben Gibson chose the immediate aftermath of the fifth goal to crash through James. Having already been booked, the subsequent red card was predictable.

Norwich initially defended better with 10 men than they had with XI. Eventually their resolve waned, when Rudiger shot for goal and Mathias Normann dived like a goalkeeper, sticking out a hand to save. It really was that desperate by then.

Mount stepped up and Krul pounced to his left to save. Norwich at least cheered something, yet only for a few seconds. A quick VAR referral revealed Krul was well off his line. Mount stood firm when Ross Barkley and James offered to step in, while Farke was still arguing the toss over the decision, which seemed the ultimate definition of a moot point.

Mount stepped up, drove the ball straight down the middle for his second. He will have been doubly pleased not to have ducked the retake in the dying minutes, when Loftus-Cheek drove down the right and squared for him and he tucked the ball home from close range for his treble.

As, for Norwich, they are a mess. ‘You can imagine the spirit in the dressing room,’ said Farke, who has now accumulated 23 points in 47 Premier League games.

‘So often we gave possession away. We weren’t quick enough, we didn’t defend movements in behind the defence, we weren’t quick enough to press the ball, we weren’t sharp and aggressive enough in our decision making, we were slow in the head and it was unnecessary to play with 10 men for 35 minutes. That was not unhelpful.’

Yes, but aside from that, how did you enjoy the game, Mr Farke?