Chelsea secured their third straight win at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium with an emphatic 3-0 win in the world’s first net-zero match, which Spurs appeared to take a little too literally.

After a first half stalemate, Thiago Silva opened the scoring with a bullet header, with a heavily deflected strike from N’golo Kante doubling the lead before Antonio Rudiger put the icing on the cake with a striker’s finish in injury-time.

While it was an extremely dominant result for Chelsea, it could have gone differently had Spurs taken advantage after what was a promising first 45 minutes. Harry Kane, Heung-min Son and the rest of the attack looked lively and by half-time both teams were very even.

Then, however, like any top team, Thomas Tuchel and his side rode Spurs’ storm and took control. Silva netted an excellent header into the bottom-right corner five minutes after the restart from a Marcos Alonso corner.

It got better just seven minutes later as Kante made a rare surge forward and took the phrase ‘if you don’t shoot, you don’t score’ to heart.

The Frenchman, who had just returned from injury, let fly from range and the ball hit the back of the net and via a deflection off Eric Dier. Kane again was a spectator and only registered one shot on target as he attempted to get his side back into the game.

Chelsea, however, limited his and Son’s threat in the second half and had so many chances to make the score line even more comfortable.

Substitute Timo Werner missed a few chances after coming on and so did Mateo Kovacic. But it was another of Chelsea three-man central defence who added gloss to the final readings as Rudiger secured the big away win.

Werner made amends for his miss by cutting the ball back to his German compatriot, who showed great composure to slot the ball into the bottom left corner like a centre-forward, not a centre-back.

After Manchester United’s dramatic win over West Ham earlier on Sunday, and Liverpool’s 3-0 victory over Crystal Palace, the Blues were under pressure to respond today. And like any title contender they rose to the challenge and have now joined United and the Reds on 13 points after five games.

• A Tell / TalkSport report

Chelsea secured their third straight win at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium with an emphatic 3-0 win in the world’s first net-zero match, which Spurs appeared to take a little too literally.

After a first half stalemate, Thiago Silva opened the scoring with a bullet header, with a heavily deflected strike from N’golo Kante doubling the lead before Antonio Rudiger put the icing on the cake with a striker’s finish in injury-time.

While it was an extremely dominant result for Chelsea, it could have gone differently had Spurs taken advantage after what was a promising first 45 minutes. Harry Kane, Heung-min Son and the rest of the attack looked lively and by half-time both teams were very even.

Then, however, like any top team, Thomas Tuchel and his side rode Spurs’ storm and took control. Silva netted an excellent header into the bottom-right corner five minutes after the restart from a Marcos Alonso corner.

It got better just seven minutes later as Kante made a rare surge forward and took the phrase ‘if you don’t shoot, you don’t score’ to heart.

The Frenchman, who had just returned from injury, let fly from range and the ball hit the back of the net and via a deflection off Eric Dier. Kane again was a spectator and only registered one shot on target as he attempted to get his side back into the game.

Chelsea, however, limited his and Son’s threat in the second half and had so many chances to make the score line even more comfortable.

Substitute Timo Werner missed a few chances after coming on and so did Mateo Kovacic. But it was another of Chelsea three-man central defence who added gloss to the final readings as Rudiger secured the big away win.

Werner made amends for his miss by cutting the ball back to his German compatriot, who showed great composure to slot the ball into the bottom left corner like a centre-forward, not a centre-back.

After Manchester United’s dramatic win over West Ham earlier on Sunday, and Liverpool’s 3-0 victory over Crystal Palace, the Blues were under pressure to respond today. And like any title contender they rose to the challenge and have now joined United and the Reds on 13 points after five games.

• A Tell / TalkSport report