Chelsea’s players made their manager look quite foolish in the first half. José Mourinho spent a fair portion of his press conference on Monday talking up the threat of Maribor, pointing out that the Slovenians were unbeaten in their past eight matches in the Champions League. Yet it was immediately clear that they would be no match for Chelsea when the Premier League leaders are in this mood. There are times when Chelsea can lose their focus and allow lesser opponents back into matches, as they did when they relinquished their lead in the 1-1 draw with Schalke but this time there was no messing around and, while Maribor were out of their depth in these surroundings, Mourinho will nonetheless be pleased with the way his team went straight infor the kill.  Loïc Rémy took 13 minutes to banish any doubts over his ability to fill in for the hamstrung Diego Costa, racing on to a through-ball from John Terry that was so good everyone initially assumed it had come from Cesc Fàbregas and drilling an expert finish past Jasmin Handanovic from 18 yards. Mourinho, so exasperated to be without Costa, could relax, only for the celebrations to be cut short when it transpired that Remy was grimacing, clutching his groin and signalling that he could not carry on. It left Chelsea with Didier Drogba as their only fit forward and Rémy will surely not be available for the trip to Manchester United on Sunday, heightening the need for Costa to recover in time.  Mourinho was fibbing when he said that he would not rest players against Maribor, because out went Thibaut Courtois, César Azpilicueta and Gary Cahill and in came Petr Cech, Filipe Luís and Kurt Zouma. Yet Maribor were unable to exploit the unfamiliarity in Chelsea’s defence. Cech, still one of the best goalkeepers in Europe despite losing his place to Courtois, coped well whenever he was called into action, Zouma looked assured for a 19-year-old and Luis showed good endeavour from left-back and had a hand in Chelsea’s fourth goal. Indeed Chelsea were so comfortable that their third goal came when Terry – admittedly in an offside position – felt relaxed enough to run the length of the pitch and finish off a flowing counter-attack.  While Mourinho was not happy to lose Rémy so early, the Chelsea fans did not mind seeing Didier Drogba replace him despite the Ivorian no longer being the rampaging force of old. The 36-year-old’s introduction gave them another chance to reminisce about his exploits during his first spell with the club and they were cheering even louder when he assumed penalty duties from Eden Hazard five minutes later to score his first Chelsea goal since the Champions League final in 2012. A nice moment but not one that could hide that Drogba was often on the periphery of the match and while he is still easing himself back in, the injury to Rémy means that Chelsea may need their returning hero to shake off the rust sooner than he might have expected.  With the match over as a contest before half-time, Mourinho was able to use it as an opportunity to give a couple of youngsters a run-out in the second half. The kid everyone wanted to see was Dominic Solanke, a 17-year-old striker who was also on the bench against Crystal Palace last Saturday, and he eventually replaced Oscar. Solanke is regarded as one of the brightest prospects in Chelsea’s academy. Yet it was Nathan Ake who stole the limelight after coming on for Fàbregas, laying on a fine assist for Eden Hazard to twist, turn and rattle home his second goal and Chelsea’s sixth in the final minute of the match.
Jacob Steinberg: The home side went in for the kill early, Loïc Rémy had a mixed night and Didier Drogba is still finding his feet