Chelsea showed barely a flicker of jet lag from their Far East excursions as they vanquished a sorry Leeds United 5-1 in the Capital One Cup quarter-final.
Leeds actually lead the Champions League winners at half-time after Jerome Thomas capitalised on David Luíz going walkabout again to cross for Luciano Becchio to expertly finish past Petr Čech.
However the Whites' advantage masked a half dominated by the visitors. Jamie Ashdown repelled several long-range efforts to preserve the slender advantage until he cracked a minute after the pause. Juan Mata didn't connect cleanly yet the ball slithered through the flimsy ex-Portsmouth goalkeeper and Chelsea were level.
Torres celebrates Chelsea's fifth
Seventeen minutes later Branislav Ivanović headed the four-times League Cup winners ahead from Frank Lampard's corner for the first of a four-goal 20-minute goal glut.
Victor Moses doubled the deficit two minutes later before Eden Hazard assured Chelsea's passage through to the last four when one-on-one with Ashdown. Fernando Torres rounded off the scoring with his sixth goal of the Rafael Benítez era against another underwhelming opponent.