Five-star Chelsea go top after beating Blackburn

Oct 24, 2009 - 8:02 PM By NEIL RICHARDS STATS European Football Writer=

LONDON (SE) - Chelsea went back to the top of the Premier League in emphatic style as they cruised to 5-0 victory over Blackburn - their biggest ever win over the Lancashire club.

Carlo Ancelotti's side were totally untroubled throughout the match, even though they only led at the interval courtesy of a Gael Givet own goal.

But Rovers subsided under a second-half avalanche of goals with the Blues struck four times in 16 minutes. Frank Lampard netted the second and fourth, one with a follow-up from Didier Drogba's cross, the other from the spot after the Ivory Coast striker had been felled by Ryan Nelsen.

Michael Essien hit the target with a 30-yard rocket and Drogba completed the scoring, heading home from a Michael Ballack near-post corner to join Darren Bent and Fernando Torres at the top of the EPL scoring charts with eight for the season.

It was the perfect response from the Londoners following last Saturday's shock 2-1 defeat at Aston Villa and they will hold top spot if Manchester United fail to win at Liverpool on Sunday.

"We were disappointed last week," Lampard said. "We wanted to bounce back and we did it in style today with a determined performance which showed what we are all about.

"We had to work for it because Blackburn are a very difficult side to break down."

Chelsea were subdued in the first half and were grateful for a helping hand from the visitors. Givet was committed to preventing a dangerous cross from Nicolas Anelka reaching Drogba, but only succeeded in diverting it past Paul Robinson with a desperate lunge.

The home side could have been well in control before then, with Joe Cole wasting a glorious chance to open the scoring after just 29 seconds of his first Premier League start since January because of a knee injury.

Lampard produced an inch-perfect cross, but Cole could only head wide from eight yards before looking hopefully for a linesman's flag for offside which never came.

"When you've been out for ten months, to come back into a game like this is fantastic," Cole said. "I'm just happy to be back playing."

Lampard and Drogba were both just wide as well, but they were reassured in knowing the misses would not prove costly as there was precious little threat to their own goal.

Blackburn, who had been deprived of their leading scorer David Dunn and powerful central defender Christopher Samba with flu before kick-off, created very little, but they did get one chance on 37 minutes when Petr Cech spilled a long throw from Morten Gamst Pedersen only for Essien to come to the rescue with a vital clearance.

The game was as good as over four minutes after the restart. Essien slid a ball into Drogba down the inside-right channel and when his cross was only half cleared the normally-prolific Lampard was on hand to drive hope his first goal from open play since April.

Essien, who by contrast is not one of the Blues' regular scorers, netted only his second goal in 27 appearances with a long-range effort which swerved away from Robinson.

Lampard then sent Robinson the wrong way from the spot to make it four just before the hour after Nelsen felled Drogba inside the area.

The Ivorian's impressive display deserved a goal and it came just on 64 minutes with a header from Ballack's corner.

Blackburn were even denied a consolation moments later, John Terry getting back to make a superb clearance off his own line after Martin Olsson had lobbed Cech.

Rovers, who were thrashed 6-2 at Arsenal in their last away game, were glad Chelsea were happy to stick with five. The Lancashire side have conceded just two fewer goals in their opening nine matches than Manchester United did in the whole of last season in winning the title and face a daunting trip to the champions in their next league game.

Blackburn boss Sam Allardyce said: "We went pathetically wrong, all the tactics that we had set out went out of the window when the second goal went in.

"I'm bitterly disappointed at the players' lack of understanding of the situation they were putting themselves in. Instead of making themselves more difficult to beat they made it easier for Chelsea after the second goal."