Chelsea 6 Wolves 0:

If John Terry fears he is about to be thrown to the wolves by the FA, he can only hope they turn out to be as feeble as the sorry pack dragged down to London by Stale Solbakken.

Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Norwegian manager sent out his reserves here and they were promptly destroyed by a Chelsea team captained by Terry.

Blues cruise: Chelsea thumped Wolves at Stamford Bridge

MATCH FACTS

Chelsea: Turnbull; Azpilicueta, Cahill, Terry, Bertrand; Ramires (Oscar 59), Romeu; Piazon, Mata (Marin 70), Moses; Torres (Hazard 78).

Subs not used: Hilario, Luiz, Ferreira, Mikel. 

Goals: Cahill 4, Bertrand 8, Mata 17, Romeu (pen) 53, Torres 58, Moses 71.

Wolves: De Vries; Stearman, Zubar, Batth, Margreitter; Peszko (Zeli Ismail 83), Edwards, Davis, Boukhari (Nouble 63), Hunt (Forde 46); Sigurdarson.  

Subs not used: Ikeme, Foley, Johnson, Price.

Referee: Neil Swarbrick.

Attendance: 32,569.

After two days in front of a disciplinary commission, looking on as lawyers grappled with the legal complications of his FA racism charge, this will have served as an ideal distraction.

Back in the warm embrace of the Chelsea fans, Terry performed as if without a care as his side breezed into the fourth round of the Capital One Cup.

He started the game by saluting supporters in the Matthew Harding Stand who serenaded him with, ‘There’s only one England captain’, and left the pitch after a six-goal stroll, blowing kisses, waving and patting the badge on his chest.

‘We wanted John to start,’ said Eddie Newton, Chelsea’s assistant manager. ‘With everything happening with the FA, we had to see how it panned out but we had a phone call that he was making his way back nice and early. We’d covered all the bases, all the scenarios, and the best one happened.’ 

In the spotlight: Terry is currently part of ongoing FA disciplinary hearing

Opener: Cahill (centre) is mobbed after his early strike

Roberto Di Matteo will take the same flexible approach to Saturday’s game at Arsenal, according to Newton.

Terry had left Wembley six-and-a-half hours before Tuesday night’s kick-off, after sitting through five hours of legal argument at the FA hearing which will continue on Wednesday. 

The crowd was well below capacity but there were lusty cheers for their captain’s name when the teams were announced.

This would be a theme of the evening, at least when the home crowd were not jeering Stephen Hunt, never to be forgotten or forgiven in these parts for his challenge on Petr Cech six years ago.

Double trouble: Bertrand scores the second for Chelsea

Three and easy: Mata (right) made it 3-0 before the 20-minute mark

Cech was among those given the night off as Di Matteo blended the experience of Terry, Ramires and Fernando Torres with some of his newcomers. Lucas Piazon, Cesar Azpilicueta and Victor Moses started their first games and Marko Marin came off the bench 20 minutes from time to make his debut.

Of the six different scorers, Gary Cahill struck first, although Wolves had every right to feel aggrieved. 

Ronald Zubar seemed to win the ball but was penalised for a foul on Moses and then Cahill scrambled over Richard Stearman at the far post to reach Juan Mata’s free-kick and head it in.

Down and out: Wolves were blown away by a barrage of goals at Stamford Bridge

 

Four minutes later, Ryan Bertrand swept forward and curled in the second. Mata made it 3-0, jinking inside from the right, trading passes with Torres on the edge of the penalty box and finishing with a sweet left-footer.

All this inside 17 minutes. Although Chelsea relaxed briefly and lost a little focus, an astonishing fightback never seemed likely. Moses sped clear seven minutes into the second half and was deemed by referee Neil Swarbrick to have been fouled by Dorus De Vries.

Oscar was booked for a dive at Stamford Bridge against Stoke on Saturday and this was a little suspicious, too. Moses certainly started to fall before the goalkeeper took his legs but there was contact and a penalty was awarded. Oriol Romeu converted it, his first goal for the club.

Spot on: Romeu scored a penalty shortly after the break

Torres headed in the fifth at the near post from a corner taken by Mata and Moses scored the sixth, heading in a cross from Oscar.

Solbakken defended his selection. ‘This was the fourth game in nine days,’ he said, but Wolves can expect a letter from the Football League for breaching their rules on fielding weakened teams.

Six of the best: Moses centre scored his first goal for Chelsea