Chelsea 2-5 West Brom: Baggies smash in FIVE at Stamford Bridge in one of the shocks of the season

Of all the ways in which Thomas Tuchel’s serene opening sequence at Chelsea might have come to end this was one nobody envisaged.

Walloped at home, conceding five against a West Bromwich Albion team with a goal allergy and seemingly doomed to the drop even before they rolled into Stamford Bridge, a ground where they had not won a league game since 1978.

Tuchel had negotiated his first 14 games without defeat. Not only that, he had seen his side concede only twice in that time, and one of those two was an own goal. And there seemed little cause for alarm when Christian Pulisic tucked away the rebound from a Marcos Alonso free-kick to open the scoring.

Thomas Tuchel suffered his first Chelsea loss after West Brom stunned his team with five goals to salvage their survival hopes

Callum Robinson had scored twice as the strugglers pulled off one of the shock results of the season at Stamford Bridge

Chelsea were left shell-shocked and dealt a severe blow in the race for the Champions League after a spectacular meltdown

MATCH FACTS AND PLAYER RATINGS

CHELSEA (3-4-2-1): Mendy 5.5; Azpilicueta 5, Silva 4.5, Zouma 5; James 5, Jorginho 4.5 (Havertz 72, 5), Kovacic 6, Alonso 6; Ziyech 5 (Christensen 33, 5), Werner 5, Pulisic 5.5 (Mount 46, 6)

Subs not used: Arrizabalaga, Rudiger, Giroud, Hudson-Odoi, Chilwell, Gilmour

Goals: Pulisic, Mount

Bookings: Silva, Kovacic

Sent off: Silva

Manager: Thomas Tuchel 5

WEST BROM (5-3-2): Johnstone 6; Furlong 6.5, O’Shea 6 (Ivanovic 24, 5 (Robinson 37, 8)), Bartley 7, Ajayi 7.5, Townsend 6.5; Phillips 7.5 (Livermore 89), Yokuslu 7, Maitland-Niles 7; Pereira 8.5, Diagne 8

Subs not used: Button, Robson-Kanu, Diangana, Peltier, Snodgrass, Grant

Goals: Pereira 2, Robinson 2, Diagne

Bookings: Diagne

Manager: Sam Allardyce 7.5

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Things began to unravel, however, once Thiago Silva was sent off and once the unravelling began it did so in rather spectacular style.

Chelsea collapsed into a nervous wreckage as West Brom were transformed into cool and clinical counter-attacking killers, seemingly capable of scoring at will.

‘Hey, we won’t be on last today will we,’ guffawed Allardyce as he took up his position for a post-match interview with BBC’s Match of the Day.

It was a reminder of how he built his reputation by roughing up the Premier League’s elite and revelling in it.

‘We demolished a Chelsea team undefeated since the new manager arrived and you can’t say it’s because they were poor or went down to 10 men,’ said the former England boss. ‘It was down to the quality of our performance. We totally outplayed Chelsea.’

There is lots to do if Allardyce is to preserve his proud record of never being relegated. They are still seven points adrift of safety but here at last was a glimmer of hope.

‘It keeps us going,’ he said. ‘It keeps us alive. Perhaps we can reach this level again.’

As for Chelsea, they could be sixth by the time West Ham have played Wolves on Monday and must find a response ahead of the Champions League tie against Porto in Seville on Wednesday.

Tuchel took responsibility for his decision to rest players based, he insisted, on a lack of preparation time, rather than with Porto in mind.

Silva returned after 11 games out injured but was sent off for two yellow cards with less than half an hour of the game gone.

His first offence came when Jorginho played a careless pass out of defence and straight to Pereira, who was hauled down by Silva before he could reach the penalty box.

Robinson neatly dinked home West Brom’s fifth after finding himself through to superbly cap off West Brom’s dream day

Tuchel was frustrated inside his technical area after watching on as his team were torn apart with a numerical disadvantage

EXPERT VIEW

Chis Foy: It was a straightforward second yellow card for Thiago Silva. When you fly in with that speed and recklessness, you are always going to get a booking for that.

Some people thought Silva should have been sent off for his first booking when he fouled Matheus Pereira. Had referee David Coote shown him a red card, I don’t think VAR would have overturned it. It wouldn’t have been a clear and obvious error, which is what VAR is there to correct. It was a subjective decision. My view was that there was a covering defender nearby so I think a yellow card was the right call from Coote.

The Chelsea defender cannot have any complaints about the second one either.

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The VAR checked for a red card but found in favour of the Chelsea defender, although his escape was short-lived as he collected his second yellow card for a late challenge, as he lunged feet-first in an effort to block a shot by Okay Yokuslu.

It was a bad day for returning veterans. Branislav Ivanovic, who made 377 appearances and scored 34 goals in nine years at Stamford Bridge, came off the bench to replace Dara O’Shea when the game was goalless.

Ivanovic, aged 37, was only on the pitch for 13 minutes when he tore a hamstring muscle in hot pursuit of Timo Werner and could be out for weeks, according to Allardyce. O’Shea, who twisted an ankle, should be back soon.

Chelsea were already ahead and down to 10 men when Ivanovic was injured. Allardyce reacted by risking another attacker in the shape of Callum Robinson and duly rewarded when his side scored twice in the closing moments of the first half.

The equaliser came from a long kick by goalkeeper Sam Johnstone, straight down the middle of the pitch, not attacked by defenders in blue and gratefully picked up by Matheus Pereira, who executed a neat finish, lobbed over Edouard Mendy.

It was a first goal conceded by Tuchel’s team in since Southampton scored against them on February 20 and ended a record-equalling run of seven successive clean sheets. It also proved to break the floodgates.

Matt Phillips rattled the bar with a curling shot from distance, and then Pereira pounced for his second as Reece James and Jorginho were caught trying to navigate an over-complicated route out of defence.

Mbaye Diagne gathered the ball and set Pereira off on another jinking run into the Chelsea penalty box and another cool finish, this time driven low into a corner.

Tuchel’s response was to send on Mason Mount for Pulisic who reported a hamstring problem at half time and the 10 men poured forward but West Brom protected their lead.

Semi Ajayi typified the spirit with a vital goal line clearance, deflecting a shot from Marcos Alonso onto a post when keeper Johnstone was beaten and Chelsea were increasingly vulnerable on the counter-attack.

Thiago Silva (C) was dismissed in the first half and his team-mates in defence were guilty of slopping mistakes afterwards

West Brom made their extra man count with their five goals and they moved seven points away from getting out the drop zone

Sam Allardyce’s team were superb and left Chelsea stunned as the complexion at both ends of the table shifted once again

Edouard Mendy and Cesar Azpilicueta roared in anger after Pereira (out of shot) fired home West Brom’s fine second goal

Pereira ought to have completed his hat-trick when clean through only to be denied by Mendy before West Brom stretched ahead. Robinson scored the third, an exquisite volley to convert a very good cross by Darnell Furlong.

It was Robinson’s fourth Premier League goal, all of them have been against Chelsea and his fifth came in stoppage time, after a VAR check for offside, to complete the rout.

In between, Diagne scored West Brom’s fourth, a crisp strike at the end of another slick move and a deserved goal for a centre-forward who led the line well.

Chelsea pulled a goal back when Werner set up Mount but this was West Brom’s day, a famous victory, one for them to savour and a reminder of what Big Sam does best.