Fulham’s under 21s superb start to the season came crashing down at Motspur Park this evening – as Chelsea strolled to a 6-0 victory in the PL2 west London derby.

The Whites were much than a match for their local rivals in a largely even first period, but were broken by a ruthless scoring display from the Blues after the interval. An open encounter saw Chelsea go close first with Donnell McNeilly driving over the crossbar at the conclusion of a promising counter attack before Brad De Jesus sent a header over from a corner and Callum Osmand seeing a snapshot bravely blocked by a covering defender.

Chelsea then had a flurry of good chances with Shumaira Mheuka flicking a header fractionally off target before Fulham goalkeeper Alex Borto was twice tested by shots from Tyrique George. At the other end, Kristian Sekularac drew a smart save out of Max Merrick and Callum Osmand drove wide from a promising position. Borto scrambled effectively to parry an effort from Ishe Samuels-Smith and arguably Harvey Vale should have done better than mishit his effort on the follow-up.

Fulham finished the first half with a fine move that saw teenage midfielder Josh King fashion a chance for himself in the area with some fancy footwork after latching onto a lovely ball from Martial Godo, but he fired wastefully over the bar having got a sight of goal.

The visitors made the stronger start to the second period with Borto pushing away a shot from Alex Matos before de Jesus cleared off the line from rebound to deny George. But the Blues went in front shortly afterwards as McNeilly was afforded far too much space in the area to finish after being found by a good ball from George.

George doubled the lead with a curling effort five minutes later after McNeilly turned provider – to give Chelsea a commanding lead. Jon Esenga did go close with a free-kick that was wonderfully tipped over by Merrick but the Blues plundered a third when Borto saved bravely from McNeilly but was powerless to prevent right back Richard Olise from turning in the rebound from close range.

Chelsea were ruthless in the closing twenty minutes as they exploited Fulham’s desire to get back into the contest as well as some naïve defending. Mhueka got a deserved goal when he raced onto a pass from Kiano Dyer to make it four and visitors added a further two goals in added time. Brazilian forward Deivid Washington was set up by Vale for the fifth and substitute Jimmy Morgan rounded off the scoring in the sixth minute of stoppage after linking up with Washington.

FULHAM UNDER 21s (4-2-3-1): Borto; de Jesus, Slade, de Fougerolles, Esenga; Donnell, King (Park 84); Works (Gordon 45), Godo, Sekularac (Loupalo-Bi 62); Osmand (Nwoko 75). Subs (not used): McNally.

CHELSEA UNDER 21s (4-2-3-1): Merrick; Olise, Samuels-Smith, Hughes (Murray-Campbell 83), Wilson; Matos (S. Rak-Sakyi 73); George (Sillcott-Duberry 75), Vale, McNeilly (Washington 75); Mhueka (Morgan 71).

BOOKED: Matos, George, Dyer, Wilson.

GOALS: McNeilly (52), George (57), Olise (63), Mhueka (70), Washington (90), Morgan (90+6).

REFEREE: James Durkin.