Chelsea forward Hakim Ziyech came off the bench to score thrice as they started their pre-season with a 6-1 friendly win against Peterborough United on Saturday.
The friendly at the club’s training base in Cobham saw manager Thomas Tuchel give 22 players playing time but it was the 28-year-old Morocco international who impressed after coming on as a second-half substitute.
Tammy Abraham opened the scoring for Chelsea before Christian Pulisic scored the second from a spot-kick that he had won for a 2-1 half-time lead, after Peterborough had opened the scoring through a penalty of their own.
In the second period, Tuchel altered the squad with ten players coming on and Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Armando Broja, Conor Gallagher, and were Ziyech among those introduced to play the remaining 45 minutes.
It was Baba Rahman who set up Ziyech for his first goal before Broja made it 4-1 and then delivered an assist as Ziyech scored his second of the day, before he completed his hat-trick after reacting quickly to a loose ball inside Peterborough’s danger zone.
Ziyech will have more time to impress as Chelsea have friendly matches coming up against Bournemouth, Arsenal, and Tottenham before they take on Crystal Palace in their Premier League opener.
In a recent interview, Tuchel admitted the plans to have a capacity crowd joining the team and his players was a motivating factor ahead of the new season.
‘It’s always exciting to see the stadium and to see the new pitch and to feel a little bit of the atmosphere, we’re happy to come back soon and play here in front of our spectators hopefully,” Tuchel told the club’s official website.
“If this is possible, it would be the first time that it’s a full stadium. We had a great experience against Leicester and we could feel what difference it will make to our sport and to the game.
“We can’t wait to experience it again but we have a long pre-season to go and there’s quite a lot of days in between.”
