Chelsea 3-0 Luton: Nicolas Jackson opens his Blues account while Raheem Sterling bags a double to see Mauricio Pochettino secure his first win

There are no more paupers in the Premier League. The top flight makes princes of everyone it blesses with its broadcast revenue. But it still felt like Luton Town came in rags when they arrived in west London last night to go their doomed way against the capital’s most debauched billionaires.

Luton, with their annual wage bill of £5 million, compared to Chelsea’s annual player earnings of £150 million. Luton, whose squad cost £20 million to put together. Chelsea, who have spent £278 million on midfielders in the past seven months alone.

Luton, whose Kenilworth Road ground is a beautiful anachronism, where the wooden floorboards in the main stand creak, rattle and vibrate as the team attacks. Chelsea, with its beautiful estates on Stamford Bridge and executive offices on King’s Road.

Luton, who had several free transfers in the starting line-up last night. Chelsea, who have broken the UK transfer record twice in the last eight months, have spent £900 million in the past three spells and gave Moises Caicedo, their £115 million signing from Brighton, his home debut.

Luton, whose fans chanted ‘Conference champions, you’ll never sing that’ to their Chelsea colleagues in the opening minutes. Chelsea, who won the Champions League for the second time two years ago and are consumed with the ambition to win the Champions League again.

If it wasn’t for the biggest financial mismatch in Premier League history, it must have been close. Neutrals everywhere were prepared for Luton to shake things up and extend Chelsea’s early season winning streak to three games. But it was not a night for fairy tales.

It was a night when Chelsea’s 3-0 win gave further indications that Mauricio Pochettino was beginning to bring at least a semblance of order to the chaos left by the club’s managers since Todd Boehly bought the club from Roman Abramovich.

It was at least a first win of the season, a first competitive win at the club for Pochettino, and only their second in their last 17 games in all competitions. They are starting from a low level, but while this was still not a completely convincing performance, it did mean progress.

It also provided more evidence of the rebirth of Raheem Sterling, who was once again the best player on the field, scoring a goal in each half and scoring a third and playing as the striker who was England’s best player in the last European Championships . . His first goal was reminiscent of Ricky Villa’s slalom for Spurs in the 1981 FA Cup Final replay. It’s good to see him back in this form.

Sterling had received critical acclaim for his performance in Chelsea’s defeat to West Ham last weekend and he almost opened the scoring in the seventh minute when a Chelsea free-kick was headed home and lazily walked over to him as he stood on the edge of the box. was standing.

Sterling met him sweetly on the volley, but he charged straight for Thomas Kaminski in the Luton goal. The goalkeeper fell backwards and to his feet as a result, but he managed to hold on to it. Sterling held his head in his hands.

Caicedo’s first contribution to his Chelsea career was inauspicious. He got the ball halfway in his own half, looked up, tripped, fell over and let the ball run to Tahith Chong. Chong danced into a defender and took aim. To Caicedo’s relief, his shot went wide.

Chelsea kept pushing for an opener. Nicolas Jackson broke forward and when the ball was put back in Enzo Fernandez’s path, his fierce left foot kissed the top of the crossbar on the way up.

It was clear a goal was coming and it was no surprise that it was Sterling who scored. He had started where he left off: the London Stadium. Seventeen minutes had passed when he got the ball on the right, danced between Ryan Giles and Ross Barkley, sidestepped Amari’i Bell and fired a left foot shot over Kaminski into the bottom corner.

Luton, as expected, offered very little going forward. Even what appeared to be their best effort on target, a Barkley header near the post from a rare corner kick two minutes from half time, turned out to have been nodded away by Ben Chilwell.

The longer Chelsea remained without extending their lead, the more familiar concerns about their lack of ruthlessness and cohesion came back to the fore and seeped into the collective consciousness of the crowd.

Their uneasiness in front of goal was underlined four minutes into the second half when Chilwell charged into the penalty area and was ten yards out with only Kaminski to beat. To the chagrin of the fans, Chilwell hesitated and tried to pass the ball squarely to Sterling. It was promptly approved by a Luton defender and the stadium groaned in disappointment.

Luton had chances, but lacked the quality to capitalize on them. Their last ball in particular was consistently wasteful. That did little to quell the growing restlessness in a stadium bored with waiting for the team to click.

The home side came close to taking a second lead ten minutes after the break when Sterling became the provider and slid the ball down the side of the goal for Fernandez at the far post. Fernandez reacted well, but his shot went off the outside of the post and away to safety.

Luton scored their best chance of the match to date soon after. The ball was cleverly worked over the Chelsea box by Elijah Adebayo until it reached Giles unmarked just inside the area. Giles’ shot was on target, but was half-blocked by Malo Gusto and spun into the air, where it was claimed by Robert Sanchez.

It was now end-to-end, but Chelsea still couldn’t make the game safe. Sterling sprinted through to a layoff from Nicolas Jackson, but his first touch took him wide and his shot dribbled wide of the far post. Hear more cries of frustration from Matthew Harding End.

Nevertheless, they eventually achieved their goal. Inevitably it was Sterling again. Caicedo, who had played a quiet game, played the ball to the right, Gusto played it into the penalty area and Sterling swept the ball home from close to the penalty spot. Relief mingled with elation at the bridge.

Chelsea scored a brilliant third 15 minutes from time as Sterling ran for a high ball over the Luton defense on the right. Sterling dropped the ball and then drove it into the penalty area for the first time. It took a slight deflection from a defender and that deflection led him perfectly into the path of Jackson, who reached out a foot to push him past Kaminski.