Chelsea cemented their place in the top four as Mason Mount and Pedro inspired a 4-0 demolition of Everton on Sunday.
Frank Lampard’s side won for just the second time in seven league games thanks to goals from Mount, Pedro, Willian and Olivier Giroud in a masterful display at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea, in fourth place, are now five points clear of fifth-placed Wolves and with nine matches to play they are in pole position to qualify for the Champions League.
It was an vibrant end to a much-needed week of good news for Lampard, whose side knocked out Liverpool out in the FA Cup fifth round on Tuesday.
Rocked by a Champions League last 16 hammering by Bayern Munich and a series of spluttering domestic results, Chelsea were in danger of losing the feelgood factor created by Lampard’s blooding of so many promising youngsters in his first season.
An injury crisis robbed Lampard of eight senior players this weekend.
But, despite absences including Tammy Abraham, N’Golo Kante and Mateo Kovacic, this was exactly the kind of energetic, clinical performance Lampard has urged his team to produce.
Mount and Pedro were livewires in the final third, while 18-year-old Billy Gilmour impressed on his first Premier League start.
Everton’s hopes of reaching the Champions League are fading fast after three games without a victory.
Their boss Carlo Ancelotti was back at Chelsea as a manager for the first time since being sacked in 2011.
Ancelotti won the Premier League and FA Cup with Chelsea in 2010 and was favourite of Lampard during his two-year reign.
But Lampard had already beaten one old mentor in Jose Mourinho this season and Chelsea were quickly on top against another of his teachers.
