If 300-odd miles and more than 60 league places were not enough to separate Chelsea and Barrow, then a forward line costing some way north of £200million was always likely to do the trick.
Let loose with points aplenty to prove, the Blues’s reserve attack put the League Two leaders to the sword in a 5-0 cruise to reach the Fourth Round of the Carabao Cup.
Christopher Nkunku scored a ruthless hat-trick, surely on the brink now of establishing the National Union of Prolific Understudies alongside Aston Villa’s Jhon Duran. Joao Felix looked the several cuts above that he is, while there was an assist and a goal, respectively, for Mykhailo Mudryk and Pedro Neto, the latter’s first in a Chelsea shirt.
When Enzo Maresca arrived at Cobham at the start of the summer to assess what was less one squad and more the remnants of the last three or four, it seemed unlikely that by mid-September a fair picture of a first-choice XI would have formed.
The Blues’s fine start to the Premier League campaign, though, has had just that effect and turned this tie into a valuable opening for those who, in the early weeks of the season, have found themselves overlooked and underworked.
Maresca made 11 changes to the side that started the 3-0 win at West Ham on Saturday, and of that team only two were even included on the bench here. The selection gave both the midfield and the backline a distinctly second-string feel, save the presence of Malo Gusto, who sharpened up with 45 minutes on his return from a hamstring problem before being saved for Brighton at the weekend.
This, though, could easily have been a Premier League front-four, composed exclusively of full internationals who could end up costing the club £240m combined. Throw in Cole Palmer and a few fluctuations in form, and in a few months it yet might be.
Nkunku finds himself behind Nicolas Jackson for now but could hardly be doing more. In scoring three times, the Frenchman took his tally for the season to five goals in four starts, as well as a crucial winner off the bench at Bournemouth ten days ago. The second here, in particular, was all class, a delightful flick off the heel that sent Gusto’s low delivery drifting from across the near post in at the far.
Felix had made the opener with a wonderful scoop, a demoralising show of quality in the first yard of space ceded, after Barrow had navigated the first eight minutes without alarm. Chelsea’s third may just as well have been the Portuguese's, too, a delicate free-kick clipped against the post and in off the unlucky Paul Farman in the Barrow goal.
After the break, it was the turn of the wingers, Felix setting Mudryk through and clear off the left. Of all Chelsea’s attackers, the Ukrainian has most to do to state his case and might therefore have been selfish in driving for goal. Instead, he rolled square for Neto, playing off his favoured right flank at last, to stroke his first Chelsea goal.
Nkunku’s third was similarly simple in the end, though only made so by his own tenacity as Farman was shrugged off the ball and the goal left clear.
Given none played a minute here, a refreshed attack of Palmer, Jackson, Jadon Sancho and Noni Madueke will likely reform when Brighton visit on Saturday afternoon, quite the luxury for the man at the helm.
None of Maresca’s recent predecessors have ever been short of forward options. Nor, though, have they often been able to choose from a group in universally good form.
