Broja opened the scoring with a fine header and was unlucky not to get another, hitting the crossbar and having a shot cleared off the line.

More goals quickly followed, with Thiago Silva heading in Palmer's corner - the latter registering his 15th goal involvement of the season - before Raheem Sterling fired in a free-kick and Enzo Fernandez made it four from close range late on.

Mauricio Pochettino discussed the performance and form of Broja after the striker netted the crucial first goal to open the floodgates.

'It’s really important for him but, I need to be honest, I think he needs to use this kind of game to score a goal, feel the net, and to improve,' said Pochettino.

'Improve not only in his fitness or his capacity to work, but in his body language also. He needs to step up and go forward, smile, be a little bit more positive.

'I told him when he goes out there to smile. In a positive way, he needs to enjoy it more, smile and laugh, fill himself with more good energy and be a happy boy.

'That is the way he needs to improve to improve his game. The potential is amazing. We are talking about one of the young strikers in England or in Europe with the most potential. But now he needs to push himself and we are going to try to help to realise it is never enough and work really hard.

'He suffered in the past a big injury, he was away nearly one year, so of course now he needs time. It is not easy for him to perform and be at the level we expect, because our expectation is massive. We really believe in him and for sure we are going to push him to improve every day.'

Pochettino has also been pleased with Palmer's progress since joining Chelsea...

'I have been very impressed. He arrived on the last day of the transfer window and to be performing after six months is incredible. We are so happy.

'Today I was a little bit disappointed with him because he didn’t score the big chance he had. But he’s still young and he needs to improve in different areas, not only on the pitch, off it as well. He needs to understand many things also.

'But he’s in a way where he’s improving a lot and of course he’s a very good player for us. He’s doing fantastic, I’m so happy and so pleased with his performance today and so far.'

Sterling's last two Chelsea goals have both been direct free-kicks, against Preston today and away at Newcastle in late November...

'I told him after game David Beckham is shaking because you are going to get his record!

'That is the quality. You can practice all day every day, but after it is about taking the free-kick and scoring. We practice but it is not special practice for him.

'That is about his quality. He scored today and against Newcastle. It’s about the capacity to believe and of course his quality.'

Mauricio revealed Nkunku suffered an injury which ruled him out today, when discussing the difficulty of getting players back to full fitness...

'It’s really tough. The circumstances are really tough from the beginning of the season. Broja, Nkunku, Lavia, sometimes it is difficult to explain for the fans.

'Like Nkunku, we don’t want to put pressure on him, because we know after a long time injured always it is difficult to come back and start to perform. After six months away from the competition it is always tough.

'Now he wasn’t involved because he suffered some problem in his hip after training yesterday and now we need to check and see if it will be possible for him to be ready for the next few games.

'That is the problem, they need game time to get their best and sometimes we cannot provide this game time to players who need to feel the competition, because in the end we are Chelsea, we need to win.

'Sometimes it is really tough to explain that to players who feel the pressure to play and perform because they want to help the team.'