Costa without attitude - Morata era dawns at Chelsea

Soccer Football - Premier League - Stoke City vs Chelsea - bet365 Stadium, Stoke-On-Trent, Britain - September 23, 2017 Chelsea’s Alvaro Morata celebrates after the match following his hat trick REUTERS/Andrew Yates

(Reuters) - The day after Diego Costa flew to Atletico Madrid after sealing his 58 million pound move, his replacement, Alvaro Morata, scored a hat-trick in Chelsea's 4-0 rout of Stoke City to mark the dawning of a new era at the champions.

The hat-trick was the first by a Chelsea player in the Premier League since Costa's in September 2014, but the second in a week for the Blues after Michy Batshuayi's treble in England's domestic EFL Cup against Nottingham Forest last Wednesday.