Chelsea’s five-star display gives Mauricio Pochettino hope over his future while David Moyes is waiting to be put out of his misery at West Ham

After so much incoherent mumbling, Chelsea is finally starting to make some sense. Not enough to trust them, but enough for Mauricio Pochettino to make a strong case for continued employment beyond this summer.

As always, any talk of revivals must be weighed against the disasters that followed each of their new days in this strangest of campaigns.

But there is also no doubt that Pochettino has orchestrated a reasonable revival, with victory over Tottenham now followed by the exuberant destruction of another London rival.

In what was their fourth win in seven league games, Chelsea were excellent. There was no ambiguity about this and it was not suggested that this was a sole proprietorship.

Unlike some of their highlights this season, Cole Palmer wasn’t the only factor of destruction. Sure, he was brilliant, which extends beyond his last goal – the 21st of his miraculous nine-assist season – but here he had company. Here the burden was shared. Here the quality revolved and shone. Whisper it and then forget it, because less than two weeks ago they were thumped 5-0 by Arsenal, but here they looked like a fine side.

Conor Gallagher was obviously among the best of them. Anyone in that boardroom who sees pure profit in his performances should be chased out of West London – he is pure class and indispensable; a master at recovering the ball and one of the safest pairs of boots if they have them. His goal was particularly well received.

Then you had Noni Madueke, who delivered perhaps his best performance of the season. He destroyed Emerson in the battle on Chelsea’s right flank, where a nasty goal was scored and an unselfish assist provided for Nicolas Jackson, whose own season mirrors that of his club. This former lightning rod for Pochettino’s troubles impressed against Spurs, getting two in this mauling, boosting the momentum of Chelsea’s late push for European qualification.

Now here’s the tricky part: how do you contextualize an absconder when the victim is as terribly poor as David Moyes’ side at Stamford Bridge? They were rotten. Spineless. Guts. For what he brought to West Ham, it’s fair to say his tenure deserved a spicier end, if these indeed turn out to be his final weeks at the club.

In that conversation he was disappointed by this performance. Ashamed by its indifference. Had Julen Lopetegui been watching, he might have had some reservations about the character of a team that could draw against Liverpool and roll over ever so softly the next time around.

This abuse could have been predicted almost immediately. Not necessarily through striking opportunities, but through the ease with which Chelsea retained and then regained possession. West Ham’s complicity in all that cannot be understated: their midfield was somberly prepared to be plundered.

Given their performance against Liverpool, we might have expected something much more robust. Moyes certainly did that – he chose an unchanged side here, but it’s strange how the same cogs can have so much variation.

Within four minutes we saw Moises Caicedo charge unchallenged thirty yards or more through the center of the field. Such liberties were probably not in the plan, although in this case the move broke down on the edge of West Ham’s area when Jackson fumbled his touch.

Moments later, Emerson was dragged out of position at left back and Gallagher surrendered space to play a quick free-kick down the line to Jackson. He came in from the right and went for the snap at the near post and Alphonse Areola saved, but those two warnings illustrated what every manager was working with.

The payoff came just under the fifteen-minute mark, although there was a degree of fortune in it for Chelsea, with Jackson meeting Madueke’s cross and his volley crashing into Kurt Zouma’s thigh. In the randomness of a ricochet the ball could have gone either way, but he chose Palmer and the inevitable followed: a beautiful, precise goal in the corner.

West Ham managed to summon some resilience for a brief moment, with Jarrod Bowen heading against the crossbar almost immediately after the restart, but it was a short-lived battle. The next few passages of the game saw both Jackson and Madueke flow unhindered through Moyes’ midfield to threatening outcomes before the second goal arrived in the 30th minute.

As with the first goal, there was some luck, and again the luck went against Zouma. This time he blocked a volley from Madueke and it was Gallagher who netted the loose ball.

Chelsea sensed a capitulation and pushed for more and found it through Madueke. He was released by Tomas Soucek when Mykhailo Mudryk’s corner passed over his head and was in the right place to push over the line after Thiago Silva had diverted it the other way.

As Moyes watched a replay on his monitor, he had a look of disgust etched into his face; spelling mistakes always sting him more.

Both Gallagher and Bowen hit the opposition crossbar towards the end of the half, before Chelsea got the second going with another strike for their visitors.

In other words: West Ham tripped themselves up. Full marks to Trevoh Chalobah for the 50-yard through ball that Madueke kindly tapped in for Jackson, but Emerson’s tracking of the England winger from the first pass was shambolic.

Jackson’s second was of a higher degree of difficulty, but he scored one on one with Areola after a ball through the middle from Caicedo. Of course it started with a blunder from West Ham when Soucek mis-controlled, but Moyes was beyond gestures at this point.

If there was any relief for him, it is that most of West Ham’s fans had already gone home.