Half-time: Chelsea 3 Newcastle 0
Diego Costa, Pedro and Willian all scored in the first 16 minutes to put Chelsea in complete command.
Costa, playing in a facemask to protect a broken nose, opened the scoring early on when he timed his run perfectly to guide Willian’s ball into the far corner.
On eight minutes, Chelsea doubled their lead. Newcastle left-back Rolando Aarons played a casual pass on halfway, Pedro beat Daryl Janmaat to the ball and the Spaniard ran to the edge of the box before firing home.
The home side’s dominance was underscored by their third goal, as Costa picked up Cesc Fabregas’ lofted pass before threading the ball into the path of Willian, who was left with a simple finish.
The goals were a fair reward for what was easily the most free-flowing performance of the season.
And they could have been further ahead but for blocks denying Branislav Ivanovic’s shot and John Terry’s header, while Willian had a free-kick tipped behind in injury-time.
Newcastle barely threatened with Georginio Wijnaldum’s shot straight at Thibaut Courtois from Janmaat’s cross their only shot on target.
The only concern for Chelsea was when captain Terry limped off after 36 minutes, following a tangle with Aleksandar Mitrovic.
Subs: Begovic, Baba, Mikel, Loftus-Cheek, Traore, Kenedy, Remy.
Newcastle United: Elliot; Janmaat, Taylor, Coloccini, Aarons; Tiote, Shelvey; Sissoko, Wijnaldum, Townsend; Mitrovic.
Subs: Darlow, Lascelles, Saivet, Colback, Perez, Doumbia, Riviere.
