Enzo Maresca made 11 changes to his Chelsea line-up for the visit of Barrow in the Carabao Cup third round, but a fine start to the Italian's Stamford Bridge tenure was never at risk of being derailed as Christopher Nkunku's hat-trick secured a 5-0 romp over the League Two side.
The Blues were three goals up and out of sight inside half an hour with Joao Felix the ring leader in an overwhelming first-half attacking display, the forward who played 44 times last season for Barcelona making featherlight work of a team who were in the National League as recently as four years ago.
Felix's free-kick forced an own goal before the break, while Pedro Neto added a fourth after the interval.
Such strength in depth underlines the quality on offer at Chelsea, who appear to be making sense of a squad-building strategy that was heavily criticised this summer.
Finalists last year, they certainly have the tools to battle across a number of fronts to get there again.
