Chelsea underlined their status as Premier League top dogs with a crushing 4-0 win against Wolves at Stamford Bridge.
Michael Essien, Chelsea v Wolves, PA Photos - 0
More Stories
* Matchcast: Chelsea v Wolves
* Match gallery
Florent Malouda opened the scoring with a thunderous early effort, before two goals from Michael Essien and one from Joe Cole put the result beyond all doubt.
Chelsea had put five past Wolves on their two previous Premier League meetings and, while they fell one short of that tally this time, there was no doubting the quality of their attacking play despite numerous high-profile absentees.
Carlo Ancelotti has had to deal with what other managers might call an injury crisis, with Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard, Michael Ballack, Deco and Ricardo Carvalho all missing, although Ashley Cole was fit enough to play.
Yet such is the strength of the Italian's squad, the stellar quintet's absence was hardly noticed.
Joe Cole played at the point of a midfield diamond, with licence to roam and create, but it was the men stationed immediately behind him who made a bigger impact.
Wolves had actually had the best early chance on four minutes, when David Edwards arrived a split-second too late to turn in a low cross from the right, but within 60 seconds Chelsea were in front.
Malouda was allowed to run unchallenged into Wolves territory, and as the defence backed off the Frenchman lashed a left-foot shot into the top-left corner - think Geoff Hurst's third in the 1966 World Cup final.
It was two on 12 minutes, as Malouda delivered an inswinging corner from the right and Essien glided a header past Wayne Hennessey.
Wales goalkeeper Hennessey did not have an afternoon to remember, and was badly at fault for the third Chelsea goal before the mid-point of the first half.
Essien hit a low shot that came through some bodies but was not deflected, and the ball somehow found its way underneath Hennessey's diving body.
Wolves had their moments. Matt Jarvis was inches away from heading in a cross from the left, and Sylvan Ebanks-Blake came even closer on 38 minutes, when he glanced a downward header goalwards but was denied by a brilliant reflex stop by Petr Cech.
However, the respite did not last long. Joe Cole made it four 10 minutes into the second half with a 20-yarder that was teed up by Salomon Kalou - again Hennessey should have done better.
Thereafter it was time for Ancelotti to experiment, and he brought on Gael Kakuta, the man whose arrival from Lens resulted in Chelsea's transfer ban.
The young Frenchman looks an exceptional talent, and within two minutes he had left Richard Stearman for dead and shot into the side netting from a tight angle on the right.
He showed superb poise and touch, and shot narrowly wide 10 minutes from full-time.
Essien strove in vain for his hat-trick blasting shots from every angle. The closest he came was with a dipping long-range effort that Hennessey palmed into the air, and came back off the bar.
Alex Chick / Eurosport
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment