Chelsea scored four times in 12 second-half minutes as Leeds suffered a Carabao Cup collapse to lose 6-3 in the third round at Stamford Bridge.
The visitors led 2-0 just after halftime thanks to Tarik Muharemovic and Brenden Aaronson against a Blues side showing nine changes from Sunday’s defeat to Arsenal, but after Xabi Alonso sent on Cole Palmer at the head of four halftime substitutions, everything changed.
Palmer got two in two minutes to equalise — the first a penalty — then Pedro Neto, another halftime introduction, scored to complete a six-minute turnaround.
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Danny Welbeck made it four as Morgan Rogers marked his impact from the bench with three assists.
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Dominic Calvert-Lewin scored as Leeds looked to pick up the shattered pieces of what had been an excellent away performance, but which was rubber-stamped as a horror show when Valentín Barco got his first goal for the club to make it five. Welbeck headed in a sixth in stoppage time.
A topsy-turvy game was further evidence of Chelsea’s new reality under Alonso, that they have a fine first XI capable of scintillating attacking football but a squad that lacks quality in depth and is defensively brittle.
