Fabregas and Morarta steer Chelsea to beat Everton 2-0

Antonio Conte's side suffered a shock 3-2 defeat to Burnley at home on the opening day of the season and their victory over Tottenham at Wembley last time out owed much to doggedness and some timely slices of luck.

But the Blues preyed mercilessly upon an Everton side who showed signs of the toll trips to Manchester City and Hajduk Split that this week had taken.

Fabregas was one of the villains against Burnley as he was sent off, but orchestrated his opening goal before the

half hour.

There were suspicions of offside when Morata doubled the lead five minutes before the interval, but the flag stayed down and Everton's hopes were seldom raised thereafter.

Pedro joined compatriot Fabregas in earning a recall to the Chelsea starting XI and the former Barcelona winger teed himself up to send a 10th-

minute overhead kick beyond the crossbar. Both sides' 3-4-3 setups largely cancelled each other out during the opening stages, but Everton were always more minded towards defence and paid for inviting Chelsea on to them in the 27th minute.

Fabregas saw the move through from beginning to end — finding Willian on the right flank before taking possession back and laying the ball in to Morata.

There was a touch of fortune as his international colleague erred and it ricocheted back into Fabregas' path, but the playmaker produced an excellent first-time finish with the outside of his right boot.

Chelsea proceeded to tighten their grip on Ronald Koeman's men, with Wayne Rooney and Idrissa Gueye forced into carelessly coughing up possession as a rumbling attacked ended with Morata slipping free of Michael Keane to head home Cesar Azpilicueta's pinpoint cross.