Alvaro Morata’s fine start to life as a Chelsea player continued as the striker scored a goal and bagged an assist in the Blues’ 2-0 win over Everton at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.

The defending champions had scripted a thrilling 2-1 win at Tottenham Hotspur last weekend thanks to heroics from Marcos Alonso and this time another Spaniard, Morata, raised his game to put Chelsea in the top-half of the league table for the first time this season.

The Blues were dominant from the first minute and while the likes of Pedro and Willian looked bright, lacked the vital cutting-edge and it required a moment of brilliance from their midfield general to break the deadlock.

Cesc Fabregas played a one-two with Morata on the edge of the box before toe-poking it past Jordan Pickford to give the home side the lead in the 27th minute.

And Morata was on target five minutes before half-time to double their lead with a simple header after Cesar Azpilicueta’s cross had found him unmarked inside the box.

At half-time, Everton had been unable to get a touch inside the Chelsea box, let alone test keeper Thibaut Courtois, such was the home side’s dominance.

Post the interval, the Toffees put in a marginally improved performance, but despite club-record signing Gylfi Sigurdsson, Wayne Rooney and Sandro Ramirez all playing together, lacked cohesiveness in attack.

Their sole bright spot was youngster Dominic Calvert-Lewin, brought on after the hour-mark but the 20-year-old could do little on his own as it turned out to be an evening to forget for Ronald Koeman’s men.

Chelsea could have easily increased their lead but thanks to some profligate finishing and an impressive Jordan Pickford, were unable to add to the scoreline.

For Chelsea manager Antonio Conte, Sunday’s win is massive and perhaps will give him some bargaining power as he presses the club board to make some signings with the transfer deadline nearing.

At the moment, the Blues are hard to beat but once the international break concludes, the fixtures will come thick and fast and the defending champions are in sore need of reinforcements for the season is very long indeed.

It was a chastening defeat for Conte’s opposite, Koeman, and the Dutch manager will have to figure out a way to get his expensively assembled attackers in sync over the international break.