Late goals from Luton’s Ross Barkley and Elijah Adebayo created a nervous end to what should have been a comfortable win for Chelsea.
In a thrilling match at Kenilworth Road, the Blues started brightly and took the lead in the 12th minute, a poor clearance from Luton’s Issa Kabore handing the ball to Cole Palmer for the forward to drill low into the far corner past Thomas Kaminski.
Again Palmer was in the mix for Chelsea’s second as he worked the ball from left to right, feeding to Noni Madueke inside the box who managed to dribble past Amari’i Bell and smash the ball from a tight angle into the top corner.
Nicolas Jackson then threaded a pass through the middle to set up Palmer, who stayed calm to roll the ball away from the goalkeeper, then again from sliding defenders before slotting in to bag the Blues’ third in the second half.
But Luton refused to give in. They thought they had pulled a goal back through Adebayo, but his header was ruled out for offside in the build-up before Barkley then scored a header from Alfie Doughty’s corner.
The Hatters threw players forward looking to get back into the game and substitute Carlton Morris’ header was pushed on to the crossbar before Adebayo scored a second for Luton, setting up a nervous final few minutes for the visitors, but Chelsea were able to hold on for the win.
The victory means Chelsea have picked up two vital wins in the space of a week as they look to start climbing up the Premier League table after a challenging 2023.
