Chelsea vs Scunthorpe match report: Diego Costa and Ruben Loftus-Cheek see off dogged League One visitors

The previous weekend Guus Hiddink rediscovered Chelsea’s attacking verve. Yesterday, he rediscovered their youth policy. The veteran manager, trying to rebuild from the debris of the second Jose Mourinho era, guided Chelsea into the fourth round of the FA Cup with a routine win over Scunthorpe United.

The first goal was scored by Diego Costa, looking as sharp now as he did last season. But the second, more significantly, was the first senior career goal for Ruben Loftus-Cheek. The 19-year-old midfielder (right) was meant to be one of Mourinho’s projects this season but was swiftly discarded when results went wrong. Yesterday, he was given 45 minutes, his longest spell in almost three months. He justified his introduction with the goal that sealed victory.

“We are determined to go on and get silverware at the end of the season,” said Hiddink, who won the FA Cup in 2009 with Chelsea and would love to do the same again, albeit with a very different squad. “We brought on youngsters in the second half, and that is good for them. Ruben came in and scored a beautiful goal, not just in its execution. That was good to see.”

Kenedy and Bertrand Traoré also came on later in the second half and, for the first time in months, the path into the first team for these young players became clear again. “If you have this academy, with investment in young players, you must give them some credit to develop,” Hiddink explained. “That is one of the objectives of the club.”

What Chelsea wanted to do from the start was continue with the same expansive, attractive football they had played at Crystal Palace the previous Sunday. That was better than any Chelsea performance in 2015 and, while this was not quite on that level, they are making gradual steps in the right direction again.

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The key to this has been Hiddink trying, with his approachable, avuncular style, to coax some form out of Chelsea’s best attackers. Eden Hazard pulled a groin muscle at Palace and so was out yesterday, and will be for at least another week, but Costa, Oscar and Cesc Fabregas were all back together, trying to find a way through the scurrying yellow shirts.

Chelsea, led by those three, started well enough that they should have put the game to bed long before Loftus-Cheek’s intervention. Costa and Oscar were stretching Scunthorpe with their movement, creating the space in which Fabregas could play his natural game.

It took only 13 minutes for Chelsea to take the lead, with a goal which spoke of the confidence returning to their play. After passing the ball patiently in midfield, Branislav Ivanovic whipped in a cross from the right. Costa, sharper and stronger than the Scunthorpe defence, darted in between Scott Laird and Jordan Clarke and got the decisive flick to send the ball into the bottom corner. “It was a beautiful goal,” Hiddink said. “So focused, so concentrated.”

At that point Chelsea should have killed the game, as they raised their tempo to a level the League One side could not live with. Fabregas obliged Luke Daniels to palm a 20-yard shot over the bar before Pedro, running on to Gary Cahill’s perfect long ball, forced an even better save from a tight angle. When Oscar dummied a pass, ran in behind, took the return ball from Costa and curled his shot just wide of the far post it felt as if Chelsea were on the brink of a dominant performance.

But in reality that failure to score a second goal almost cost them. Scunthorpe grew in confidence and Chelsea spent the end of the first half, and the start of the second, trying to repel counter-attacks and balls into the box that might have made for an upset.

What Chelsea needed, then, was a burst of purpose, an injection of energy, to take the game away from Scunthorpe. That is precisely what they got from Loftus-Cheek, brought on at half-time for Oscar. With his first touch, a few seconds in, he took the ball in midfield, breaking through tackles, making up ground and laying the ball out to Pedro.

Loftus-Cheek could not stem all the Scunthorpe danger, and there was a penalty appeal which was not awarded. But just when the game was starting to open up, Loftus-Cheek emphatically closed it down. Willian ran down the left and fed the overlapping Cesar Azpilicueta, who drove a cross towards the near post, beyond Costa. Loftus-Cheek peeled away and met the ball with a powerful finish into the bottom corner.

Scunthorpe’s overall performance, given the imbalance in resources, was certainly one to be proud of. Once they had survived Chelsea’s early onslaught, they knew how to cause problems, largely thanks to Luke Williams’ selfless running. He forced Asmir Begovic’s first save and was stopped just before the break only by a perfectly timed Kurt Zouma tackle.

The closest the visitors came to a way back into the game was a very plausible penalty appeal just before the second goal. Kevin van Veen drove forward with the ball and, just inside the box, collided with Ramires. Van Veen went down, and while there was contact, referee Craig Pawson decided it was not a foul. Scunthorpe were furious and even after the final whistle, substituted captain Stephen Dawson was still in his ear, offering his own interpretation of events.

Mark Robins, the Scunthorpe manager, was just as forthright in his post-match press conference. “It was nailed on,” he said. “We are disappointed with that. You need the rub of the green – and we didn’t get it.”

With four minutes left, Clarke hammered a 20-yarder against the crossbar, via Begovic’s fingertips. A late goal would have done justice to Scunthorpe’s efforts. They had to make do with a sporting invitation into the Chelsea dressing room for a post-match celebration instead.