CHELSEA 6 - MAN.CITY 0
What a perfect display from us today. The football was everything that has been promised, and the fact that the boys NEVER let up against City until the final whistle, far exceeds the old way of defending the 1-0 lead.
Lampard was masterful today. I've seen him play some fantastic games but this was something else. He dominated the midfield and his passing and vision was incredible today. He is at last, playing at his very best once again.
All the goals were great goals, and it was great to see a sharper rejuvenated Sheva get the sixth goal.
Match report:
Chelsea 6-0 Manchester City
A terrific display at Stamford Bridge has woken the Premier League up to the renewed threat of Chelsea, as the Blues hammer six goals past a woeful City side.
Chelsea dominated from start to finish and never took their foot of the gas for a second.
Michael Essien opened the goal-fest (15), before Didier Drogba added a second (31), with both goals assisted by Frank Lampard who put in a sublime performance.
Drogba grabbed a second early in the second-half (56), Joe Cole put the game out of sight four minutes later and then Salomon Kalou stole through in the 75th minute to score a goal his overall display deserved.
Andriy Shevchenko came on late in the game and promptly made it 6-0 minutes from the end with an accomplished finish.
First Half
Chelsea started as they clearly wanted to go on, by bulldozing the midfield and loading the pressure on City’s defence.
Almost from kick-off Lampard, who had an excellent first half, put slightly too much on a through-ball for Salomon Kalou as the ball raced away for a goal-kick.
Chelsea immediately won the ball back from the goal-kick and Lampard once again looked for Kalou to get beyond the City backline, but the energetic Micah Richards saw the danger and reacted well to clear the danger.
Despite the early dominance from the home side, it was City who crafted the first real opportunity after 5 minutes, as Stephan Ireland ghosted in-behind the snoozing Chelsea defence to send a header just wide of goal with Peter Cech scrambling across.
The Blues continued to apply the pressure by outworking and out-passing City all over the park.
On the 10th minute Kalou was once again put through but Richards thwarted the Ivorian for the second time by racing across and sliding the ball for a corner, from which the hulking Alex wasted with a free header.
With the home fans worked up following a promising start by their side, Michael Essien sent them into a positive frenzy by slotting the ball across Joe Hart and into the left-hand corner of the net (15).
Frank Lampard had been at the heart of Chelsea’s attacking forays and it was his vision that set the Ghanaian up with a lovely ball in-behind the dithering Javier Garrido for his midfield partner to score.
City attempted to striker back almost immediately as a poor tackle from behind by John Obi Mikel on Elano gave a free-kick opportunity for Martin Petrov from 30 yards out.
The Bulgarian fired a near-perfect curled effort over the wall that Peter Cech did extremely well to tip round the post for a corner.
Richards rose highest from the resulting corner but he couldn’t direct his header on goal when under pressure from Ricardo Carvalho.
The young emerging defender did much better in his own box only 5 minutes later as he stretched all his sinews to get the merest but most important of touches on a Joe Cole cross to divert the ball from Didier Drogba, who had already leaped to plant the ball into the net.
Richards remained in the limelight for the next 5 minutes as he first charged down Juliano Belletti in the City box and seemed to get very little of the ball as the Brazilian fell to the ground.
The Chelsea players and fans roared for a penalty but referee Mike Riley pointed for a corner.
The referee was once again called into action as Richards tangled with his England team-mate Lampard.
The Chelsea midfielder was tackled with force by Richards before feeling the full weight of the burly centre-half as he fell on the prone Lampard.
The Chelsea captain promptly squared up to Richards and both players had to be separated before Riley dished a yellow card to each player.
Lampard looked aggrieved as Richards had bought the aggression to the tussle, but the midfield maestro took his revenge in the best way only 2 minutes after, by setting up a second goal for Chelsea.
Upon receiving the ball just around the half-way line, Lampard sent a glorious 60-yard pin-point ball that evaded Richards and fell into the feet of Drogba, who controlled and fired the ball beyond Hart for his fourth goal in four games (31).
Chelsea continued to govern possession and with Lampard pulling the strings, they rarely looked in danger of losing their lead. Instead City became frustrated, and Michael Johnson picked up a booking for a wild tackle on Mikel.
City’s second real chance of the half fell again to Ireland 5 minutes from the break, who unmarked on the edge of the Blues area managed to drag a woeful shot wide of Cech’s goal.
Not that City deserved a goal as they had been roundly dominated by a rampant Chelsea team that was rightly applauded as the half-time whistle was blown.
Second Half
Avram Grant must have ordered his side to continue where they left off, for Joe Cole raced away down the left-wing from the restart, leaving the City players in his wake before crossing for Kalou who couldn’t control the ball quick enough.
On the 50th minute Lampard attempted to put the Ivorian through on goal again with the most exquisite pieces of skill you might see this season.
Standing 15 yards in the City half the ball was fired into him, but rather than taking a touch, Lampard quickly adjusted his body to flick a pass to Kalou by swinging his right foot behind his left-foot to clip the ball 20 yards to put the striker though on goal.
The City defence got back and cleared but the gasps in astonishment at the individual piece of magic by Lampard was audible around the ground.
City’s Johnson was very lucky not to be dismissed as his tackle that left Essien writhing in pain deserved a second-yellow, but Riley opted to give the young midfielder his final warning.
Not that it mattered much as Chelsea breezed into 5th gear by scoring their third-goal of the afternoon.
Hart did well to initially save from Lampard but could do nothing as Drogba bullied his way past defenders to smash a shot past Hart and into the net (56).
A dejected City side were mercilessly made to pay for poor defending again as Joe Cole timed his run past a backline caught far-too square, before racing in on goal and beating Hart at his near-post (60).
Although the game by now was far out of sight for City, Sven-Goran Erikkson will be furious by the lack of fight in his side as time after time the defence was left exposed by midfielders unwilling to track Chelsea’s rampaging attacks.
The fifth goal came almost identical to the fourth, as the City backline was again caught far too square, and was easily breached by Essien’s run down the left-wing.
The midfield dynamo noticed Kalou’s darting run and played the Ivorian in to make the score-line an official romp (75).
Grant reacted by taking Drogba off for Andriy Shevchenko.
Drogba left the field to a hero’s applause, and the clapping continued in earnest as the Ukrainian took to the pitch.
The final gloss was put on an extraordinary performance from the Blues as the much-maligned Shevchenko latched onto a pass from Essien and proceeded to hammer a sixth goal of the afternoon over poor Hart’s head and into the net (89).
I don't think that anyone can now doubt that the pertnership of Avram Grant, Henk ten Cate and Stevie looks like bearing fruit. This should shut the doubters up once and for all. THIS was the best Chelsea performance I have witnessed for many a year, and that includes 3 seasons under Jose.
The king is dead.......Long live the king.
C'MON YOU BLUES
, 5 ASSISTS in last two prem games, unbelievable. Drogba, worlds best striker. Im excitied gotta tell ya. This year is gonna be veryyyy interesting