In the 54th minute, with the game still 0-0, Leicester City broke swiftly from a Chelsea corner and Riyad Mahraz found Nugent 40 yards out with only the Blues goalkeeper between him and a famous goal. Rather than commit himself, Courtois nervelessly closed the distance and narrowed the angles before deflecting the shot wide. Stamford Bridge roared in approval and the body language of the visiting players, impressively unperturbed up to that point, suggested they thought their best chance had gone.
It proved the decisive moment of the match. Chelsea, slow and uninspired in the first half but considerably more dangerous after a halftime, never flirted with disaster again. Diego Costa opened the scoring nine minutes later with a strike every bit as opportunistic and clinical as his Premier League opener at Turf Moor, and Eden Hazard overcame a lackluster individual display to make the game safe late on.
Chelsea’s ruthlessness at both ends is particularly ominous for the club’s rivals. These are early days but, boosted by a summer of carefully targeted recruitment, Mourinho’s men now seem to tick all the boxes of worthy champions.
