Villa Vanquished : Chelsea 7 Aston Villa 1

Frank Lampard grabbed four as Chelsea demolished Aston Villa 7-1 to soar back to the top of the Premier League table for a couple of hours.
Lampard's quartet made him third-highest scorer in the club's history, eclipsing legends Roy Bentley and Peter Osgood, with 151 goals.
Lampard was assisted by a double from Florent Malouda and another from substitute Salomon Kalou as Carlo Ancelotti's side smashed in 12 goals in four days.
The Blues have now scored 82 goals so far this season and apart from John Carew's first-half equaliser, were in cruise control for long periods.
Chelsea, who left 30-goal top scorer Didier Drogba on the bench, started brightly enough with Deco finding Nicolas Anelka inside the Villa penalty area in the third minute.
But the France international, given the task of leading the attack in place of Drogba, shot into the arms of Brad Friedel at his near post.
Drogba, who scored twice in the 5-0 midweek demolition of Portsmouth, was rested according to Ray Wilkins.
Lampard tried to surprise Friedel in the 14th minute with a low drive from 30 yards but the American goalkeeper was untroubled by the bounce.
But Chelsea went ahead a minute later when Malouda's low cross was turned home at the far post by Lampard.
It was the England midfielder's 18th goal of the season in all competitions.
Villa's Stephen Warnock required treatment to a head injury after a collision with Joe Cole in the 23rd minute.
Controversy erupted in the 27th minute when John Mikel Obi appeared to elbow James Milner.
But referee Peter Walton booked Villa captain Stiliyan Petrov for protesting about Mikel's challenge and took no action against the Chelsea midfielder.
However, Villa were jubilant in the 29th minute when they equalised through Carew.
He converted a superb curling cross from Ashley Young at the far post to score his ninth goal in eight games.
Moments later Yuri Zhirkov, who was clearly at fault for allowing Carew to ghost into space at the far post for Villa's goal, was booked for a foul Gabriel Agbonlahor.
Deco followed his Chelsea team-mate in the book moments later for a foul on Milner in the 40th minute.
But Chelsea restored their lead in the 44th minute through a Lampard penalty.
Referee Walton adjudged Zhirkov had been fouled by Villa defender James Collins as he burst into the penalty area and Lampard converted the spot-kick with ease.
Chelsea went 3-1 up in the 57th minute when Malouda finished off a sweeping move by the hosts.
Deco's clever ball inside the full-back found Zhirkov in space and his cross was met perfectly by Malouda for the France international to score his 12th of the season.
Chelsea gave away a dangerous free-kick on the edge of the penalty area seconds later when Paulo Ferreira fouled Agbonlahor.
But Milner's effort was straight into the defensive wall much to the dismay of the Villa fans.
Chelsea made Villa pay in the 62nd minute when Lampard grabbed his hat-trick, and his 20th of the season, with his second penalty of the game.
Zhirkov was again fouled, this time by Richard Dunne, and Lampard beat Friedel to become the joint third-highest scorer in the club's history.
It was a game of landmarks for the Blues with John Terry becoming the club's all-time record captain. His 325th appearance eclipsed former great Ron Harris and it was also Terry's 450th outing for the club.
In the 68th minute, rampant Chelsea made it 5-1 when Ferreira and Lampard combined to set-up Malouda for his second of the game and his 13th of the season.
In the 82nd minute substitute Kalou sent a curling shot around Friedel's right-hand post but he found the target a minute later when he drilled the ball past Friedel from 18 yards after an unselfish pass from Anelka.
Lampard then made it 7-1 with his fourth of the game in added time as Villa's 10-match unbeaten run came to a crashing halt.
It also made the midfielder the third-highest scorer in the club's history with 151 goals - only Kerry Dixon and Bobby Tambling are now ahead of him.

(sportal.co.nz)

Pompey Pacified : Portsmouth 0 Chelsea 5

The Blues cut Manchester United's lead at the top of the Premier League to one point with an impressive 5-0 hammering of crisis club Portsmouth at Fratton Park.
A David James howler allowed Didier Drogba to tap into an empty net for Chelsea's opener before Florent Malouda grabbed two second-half goals in 10 minutes.
Drogba's neat finish and Lampard's late goal sealed the win against a Portsmouth side now one step closer to almost certain relegation.
Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti handed Daniel Sturridge a surprise start as the Blues looked to close the gap on United and atone for their Champions League exit to Inter Milan last week.
Sturridge replaced Nicolas Anelka in Ancelotti's starting XI, which also included Petr Cech and Ricardo Carvalho, who have both been out through injury for a month. Deco was handed his first start since February 2 while Yury Zhirkov came in for the injured Branislav Ivanovic.
Portsmouth manager Avram Grant replaced Quincy Owusu-Abeyie and Nadir Belhadj with Steve Finnan and Richard Hughes, while there was no place for Aruna Dindane due to a clause in his loan agreement which would require Pompey to pay 4million pounds to Lens if he played another game for the club.
Ancelotti described the match as a ‘must win’ against Grant, who spent eight months at the helm at Stamford Bridge in the 2007-08 season.
Financially-stricken Portsmouth, who learned before kickoff they would be allowed to sell players outside the transfer window, lined up in a defensive 4-3-2-1 formation at a rain-soaked Fratton Park.
Chelsea were the most dominant team in the early exchanges and Deco combined well with Drogba before the Ivory Coast striker fired a weak shot wide.
Drogba was in the thick of the action again soon after but he wasted a good chance by volleying well over the bar from inside the box.
Lampard thought he had put Chelsea ahead in the 10th minute but James scrambled across his line to tip the midfielder's 30-yard strike around the post.
James was once again on hand to save another Lampard shot moments later from a similar distance.
Pompey started to get a foothold on the game as the pitch cut up under the rain but found themselves 1-0 down thanks to a James howler in the 32nd minute.
The England keeper raced out of his box to make a routine clearance after Deco tried to play Drogba through but James completely missed the ball, leaving the Ivory Coast man to tap into an empty net.
James was left with his hands on his hips as the Chelsea fans ridiculed the stopper for his mistake.
Ancelotti was forced into a change soon after when he brought on Alex for Carvalho, who went off clutching his ankle.
The game came close to boiling point soon after when Pompey full back Ricardo Rocha had to be carried off after colliding with Malouda.
Malouda then squared up to Hermann Hreidarsson, who claimed the Frenchman had used his elbow in the challenge, before being booked by referee Lee Mason.
Rocha, meanwhile, was carried off on a stretcher after a four-minute stoppage while wearing an oxygen mask.
Pompey's troubles worsened when Tommy Smith hobbled off after the half-time whistle.
Smith failed to emerge after half time and was replaced by Quincy, whose clever ball into the box failed to find a team-mate soon after the break.
After his booking, Malouda was booed every time he touched the ball but he soon plunged the Pompey fans into further misery when he picked up Lampard's pass and beat James from a tight angle to make it 2-0.
Joe Cole, who had voiced his frustration at his lack of first-team action earlier this week, replaced the ineffective Sturridge in the 53rd minute.
The midfielder made an immediate impact, drawing a good save from James after a clever through ball from Lampard.
Malouda then scored his second of the night when he reacted first to James' save from Lampard's shot to coolly slot the ball home to make it 3-0.
James then pulled off a flying save to deny Lampard from 20 yards as Chelsea looked to turn the screw.
Kanu replaced Mokoena with 15 minutes left in a desperate attempt to inject some life into the Pompey attack, who were being well marshalled by John Terry and Alex.
Drogba was then played in by John Obi Mikel and the striker held his nerve to slot past James from inside the box to make it 4-0.
Portsmouth then had a golden chance to pull one back but Hughes somehow put a free header from five yards out wide.
Frederic Piquionne then beat two Chelsea defenders down the right but Kanu blazed over from eight yards out.
Second half substitute Patrick Van Aanholt then squared the ball to Drogba but he just missed out on his third by firing over.
Lampard completed Pompey's misery when he finished from Drogba's knock down in the third minute of injury time to make it 5-0. (sportal.co.nz)

Rovers Resilient : Blackburn Rovers 1 Chelsea 1

Chelsea suffered a stumble in the title race that could yet prove fatal to their chances of taking the Premier League crown to round off a week of bitter disappointment for Carlo Ancelotti's side.
A match that seemed there for the taking after Didier Drogba's early goal somehow drifted out of Chelsea's grasp.
El Hadji Diouf headed a superb equaliser as Blackburn put in such a powerful second-half performance that keeper Jason Brown was barely tested.
For Chelsea, whose record in its past nine matches is now four wins, four defeats and one draw, this was hardly a display of title-winning credentials and they are now four points behind Manchester United and two behind Arsenal, though with a game in hand.
This was underlined by the fact that the clear man of the match was none other than Rovers' 18-year-old central defender Phil Jones, making his league debut and up against Drogba and Nicolas Anelka.
Blackburn boss Sam Allardyce had gambled on him in the absence of Ryan Nelsen and Gael Givet.
That gamble may have lookrd rash as Drogba carved out an early chance for himself, dinking a neat curling shot just wide of the post despite being surrounded by a posse of defenders.
That was just a foretaste of what was to come as the Ivory Coast striker opened the scoring in the sixth minute with almost effortless simplicity.
Anelka burst down the right, cut inside Jones and laid the ball back for Drogba to wrong-foot the entire Rovers defence and keeper Jason Brown with a neat left-footed finish back into the opposite corner.
Kalou threatened to further emphasise Chelsea's early dominance with a header from a corner that flew over the crossbar but from then on it was downhill for the visitors.
David Dunn won a free-kick in Morten Gamst Pedersen range after being halted by an agricultural challenge by Alex, but although the Norwegian was on target Chelsea keeper Ross Turnbull turned his effort behind.
Pedersen had another sight of goal but was wildly off-target with his volley, while Jones drew the loudest cheers from the Rovers fans so far with a series of crunching - but legal - challenges as Blackburn did their best to out-power the visitors.
Florent Malouda let fly from 20 yards out with a stinging drive but Brown managed to parry the shot, if somewhat unconvincingly.
Ancelotti was then forced to make a change just before the break with Branislav Ivanovic, who appeared to have been stood on unintentionally by El Hadji Diouf, limped off to be replaced by Zhirkov.
Blackburn, as if scenting that Chelsea may have missed a trick by scoring just a single goal in the first half, upped the tempo in the second.
Zhirkov's first involvement for Chelsea, right at the start of the second half was to head off the line after Chris Samba had beaten the flapping Turnbull to Pedersen's long throw.
Pedersen was then left cursing again when given space to shoot from 25 yards out but missing the target by some margin.
Frank Lampard, who had been having a quiet game by his standards, was much closer with a rising effort from the same range that was a whisker away from the top right-hand corner.
The suspicion that Chelsea had seemed over-confident in settling for a 1-0 win had been growing the longer the second half went on, and in the 70th minute Diouf made them pay.
The Senegal international hung in the air above Ferreira to meet Michel Salgado's cross with a superb header down into the corner.
Chelsea, stung into action, became more direct themselves and Alex struck a piledriver from a 30-yard free-kick over the bar.
With time running down, Drogba was denied a fine winner by a good block, then Jones crowned a magnificent debut with an intercepting header to keep out John Terry.
Rovers celebrated as though they had won the Premier League. Chelsea looked as though they had just lost it. (sportal.co.nz)

Sorry to keep banging on about referee's decisions but while watching this game there were several occasions when we didn't get decisions that I feel sure the likes of Man. Utd. and Arsenal would have.

You only have to look at the penalty Man. Utd. got against Liverpool the day before.

It's difficult enough for us to get a penalty when the offence is comitted inside the box let alone 10 yards outside.

We always seem to get results in spite of the officials, not because of them.

Blues Brushed Aside : Chelsea 0 Internazionale 1

Jose Mourinho enjoyed a triumphant return to Stamford Bridge as his Inter Milan side sent Chelsea spinning out of the Champions League by repeating their first-leg victory with another win at Stamford Bridge.
The former Chelsea coach had, prior to the match, promised to forego any personal celebrations as a mark of respect to his old club, but was nevertheless left filled with pride as Inter did a very professional job in west London.
After efficiently soaking up a barrage of Chelsea pressure in the first half, Inter became increasingly menacing as the second half unfolded, and in truth deserved their victory, sealed by a brilliant finish by Cameroon international Samuel Eto'o 11 minutes from time.
Worse was to follow for deflated Chelsea when Didier Drogba was shown a straight red card after 87 minutes.Mourinho's public celebrations were muted as he disappeared quietly down the tunnel just as the referee blew for full-time, but he admitted he did allow himself to enjoy the result behind closed doors. He said: "I celebrated a lot in the dressing-room when the game was over. It was a big victory for my team."Mourinho felt his team were better than Chelsea in every aspect on the night. "I think everything was superior," he added. "I don't think it was tactics, it was attitude on the pitch."
They had reactions of frustration, of a team that felt the opposition was superior. Our team started the second half in an incredible way. We were the best team by far."
Mourinho set out his stall to be positive from the start, picking three forwards. Rather than 'parking the bus' in front of goal, as he once accused a Premier League manager of doing against his old club, Mourinho chose Eto'o, Diego Milito and Goran Pandev as Inter looked to protect their 2-1 lead from the first leg. Pandev coming in for Dejan Stankovic was the only change from the Milan leg for Mourinho, who signed autographs near the dug-out before kick-off.
With the pleasantries out of the way, Inter looked to extend their advantage, with Wesley Sneijder having a shot blocked by Alex, while Maicon raided down the right and fired over. Florent Malouda led the charge for the hosts. One of his mazy runs was stopped by Lucio in the penalty area and referee Wolfgang Stark deemed the tackle fair. Drogba, always first on the scene when trouble flared, then had his first sight of goal when the ball broke for him 20 yards out – but Maicon blocked bravely.
The crucial blow came with 12 minutes to go and it was Sneijder who provided the chance. His ball over the top went over Ivanovic's head and landed perfectly for Eto'o, who took the pass in his stride and stroked his finish past Ross Turnbull.
Drogba was given a red card after a clash that had Motta clutching his shin and Inter players accusing the Chelsea striker of kicking out. (thescotsman.com)
Again, after their winning goal went in, a lot of people left their seats and exited the stadium. I commented on this in the Man. City report. These people aren't supporters, they're just paying guests (prats).
I know I'm biased, but there really does seem to be some sort of directive to stop a) too many English teams progressing in this competition or b) Chelsea progressing in this competition.
There was one nailed on penalty decision in the first leg and three in the second that we didn't get. Add to this the debacle of the semi-final second leg last season and you can see why most Chelsea supporters believe that something smells fishy.

Hammers Hammered : Chelsea 4 West Ham 1

Chelsea went back to the top of the Premier League with a comfortable 4-1 win over West Ham at Stamford Bridge.
Brazilian defender Alex headed Chelsea in front in the 15th minute but Scott Parker levelled with a stunning volley on the half-hour mark.
Didier Drogba rose unmarked to restore Chelsea's lead in the 55th minute before Florent Malouda's 20-yard effort in the 76th minute and Drogba's second put Carlo Ancelotti's side one point clear of Manchester United at the summit.
Chelsea goalkeeper Ross Turnbull made his league debut for the club and looked confident enough ahead of Tuesday night's Champions League last-16 return leg against Inter Milan.
The keeper, third choice all season, will be asked to play against Inter, who lead 2-1 from the first leg, due to injuries to Petr Cech and Hilario.
Chelsea were given a sterner test than they would have wanted by a West Ham side that went in 1-1 at the interval.
Ancelotti's side had the better of the early exchanges but West Ham should have been ahead in the 13th minute.
Mido's low cross from the byline found Araujo Ilan unmarked just eight yards out but the West Ham striker blazed his effort over the crossbar.
The miss proved costly for West Ham as Chelsea went ahead two minutes later through Brazilian defender Alex.
The Hammers failed to clear a corner from Malouda and when the ball was returned to the France winger, his cross was headed home by the unmarked Alex.
It was the defender's first goal of the season but it could have been worse for the Hammers seconds later.
Another cross from Malouda caused panic in the West Ham defence and a deflection off Matthew Upson looked to be heading for his own net until goalkeeper Robert Green just managed to palm it away to safety.
In the 27th minute, Chelsea carved West Ham open again and Frank Lampard's curling cross found Drogba at the far post only for the Ivorian to miss the target.
But West Ham were level in the 29th minute when former Chelsea midfielder Parker sent a 25-yard volley over Turnbull and into the top corner.
Turnbull could do nothing about Parker's effort but once again Chelsea were guilty of failing to defend a throw-in.
The goal stunned Chelsea and their response was predictable and rapid. In the 35th minute, Green had to dive full-stretch to keep out a 20-yard low drive from Lampard.
Two minutes later, Nicolas Anelka tried his luck from 20 yards out but the ball was comfortably collected by Green.
Malouda was a constant threat to West Ham and five minutes before the break he sent over another dangerous cross but Paulo Ferreira could only direct his header into the arms of Green.
Chelsea almost restored their advantage when a 53rd minute cross from Malouda just eluded Michael Ballack at the far post.
But the home side was ahead again in the 55th minute and the driving force was captain John Terry.
The Chelsea defender surged forward to the edge of West Ham penalty area and allowed Drogba to lay the ball off to Malouda on the left wing.
The France winger delivered another pinpoint cross into the six-yard box and this time Drogba headed home from point-blank range for his 26th goal of the season - his 20th in the league.
The Chelsea fans began chanting 'There's only one England captain' as England coach Fabio Capello watched on from the West stand.
Moments later Chelsea were denied a third by a great save from Green who dived to his right to tip away a header from Alex.
In the 65th minute, Chelsea midfielder Joe Cole was given a chance to shine before Capello when he replaced Anelka.
Moments later there was a double substitution for the Hammers - Junior Stanislas replaced Kieron Dyer and Mido made way for Carlton Cole.
Malouda made it 3-1 to Chelsea in the 76th minute with a 20-yard shot into the bottom corner.
It was a fitting reward for the France winger who had set up both of Chelsea's earlier goals.
Chelsea were then denied a fourth in the 85th minute when Lampard's glancing shot hit the far post.
Drogba completed the scoring in the 89th minute with his 27th goal of the season - finishing off from close range after Green had palmed a Lampard shot into his path.
As a footnote I was very impressed with the West Ham fans who hardly stopped singing and chanting the whole 90 minutes, even when our fourth went in they were cheering and dancing about as if they had scored themselves.
Pity our fans in the East and West stands can't get behind the team in the same way.