CHELSEA 6 MANCHESTER CITY 0(27/10/2007)

MATCH REPORT: CHELSEA 6 MANCHESTER CITY 0

Chelsea have simply annihilated high-flying Man City to record our first ever 6-0 home win in the Premier League.

Brilliant midfield domination built on solid defence and an attack that had City chasing shadows sent the Stamford Bridge crowd home with huge smiles on their faces. They had witnessed two goals from, who else, Didier Drogba plus strikes from Michael Essien, Joe Cole, Salomon Kalou with substitute Andriy Shevchenko also joining the party.

Chelsea, chasing our 68th consecutive league game at home without a losing, made three changes to the team that beat Schalke midweek today, with Kalou in attack instead of Florent Malouda.

Juliano Belletti started at right back instead of Paulo Ferreira who moved to left back instead of the injured Ashley Cole, and suspended Wayne Bridge, whilst John Mikel Obi returned to the midfield.

Sven-Goran Eriksson's side arrived at a cloudy and overcast Stamford Bridge for the Premier League clash that would see Manchester City attempt their first win at the ground in 13 years.

Today's match was Chelsea's official event during Kick It Out's week against racism and discrimination in football.

To mark the occasion the Blues warmed up in Kick It Out T-shirts whilst Stamford the Lion motivated the crowd in one of the campaign's garments, all to the accompaniment of Didier Drogba and Michael Essien's charity single 'Skin'.

After Man City had kicked off, the first 10 minutes seemed like the game could go either way, but one thing was for sure, it was going to be a cracker.

It wasn't until the 13th minute that Cech was called into action by saving a screaming Samaras shot from 20 yards out after Alex failed to clear the ball from an awkward position with the Greek striker collecting the rebound.

In the 14th minute, Cole took a corner which fell to Lampard after an attempted clearance. Lampard's subsequent shot was blocked, sending the ball out for another corner which was punched out of the area by Hart.

However, the ball did not stray too far and another attack into the box led to a third corner which Alex reached with his head, only to send the ball over the bar.

It seemed inevitable that the next attack was going to be on target. A job achieved by Michael Essien when, in the 17th minute, the Ghanaian fed off a Lampard ball, firing a shot across the face of goal and finding the bottom left corner.

Chelsea had now started as we meant to go on when only minutes later Kalou narrowly missed the chance of sending his header into the back of the net after reaching Drogba's cross.

In the 20th minute, Mikel brought down Elano to give Man City a chance from 30 yards out, Petrov launched a scorching shot towards the top right corner which forced Cech to pull off a fantastic save, his second of the game.

Essien was then booked in the 25th minute after stealing the ball from Brumer Elano, however the free-kick didn't give City any advantage as the counter-attack allowed Kalou to release a through ball which Drogba got on the end of, narrowly missing from his first shot of the game.

We then saw some controversy when Richards ruthlessly tackled Lampard. The subsequent scuffle resulted in yellows for both the City defender and Chelsea's captain, but it didn't take long for Lampard to get his own back.

He released a through ball for Drogba which slipped straight in front of Richard's path. Drogba latched onto the pass in the area and found the back of the net from his second touch, spinning the ball under Hart's body. Chelsea were now controlling the game.

It wasn't until the 37th minute that Man City could revive their fans when Stephen Ireland's shot went wide, leaving Cech unmoved by from the midfielder's very good chance.

Three minutes before half time and Chelsea were at it again which a speedy attack down the right from Cole allowing the ball to enter the box.

However, Drogba never managed to reach the pass as he was tripped entering the area, Mike Riley failed to award the penalty though and the ball was sent out for a corner.

When the teams went in at half time it could have seemed realistic for the City fans to hope for a fight back despite possession being controlled by Chelsea, but after the half time whistle Chelsea came out as we had gone in, with three straight attacks - only narrowly missing out with shots on goal.

In the 55th minute Chelsea were onto our third when Kalou and Lampard were both denied a goal and Drogba attached himself to the rebound after Hart failed to collect. He then blasted the ball into the back of the net from only five yards out.

Chelsea were now calling the shots and it wasn't long before we got our fourth. J Cole put his name on the score sheet in the 60th minute when he latched onto a Drogba header and calmly drilled the ball along the floor from his right foot into the bottom corner.

Chelsea continued to keep the possession with a few chances going astray, Lampard came closest in the 73rd minute forcing Hart into action again.

In the 75th minute, Kalou made it five when Essien played a clever through ball into the box allowing the Ivory Coast striker to calmly knock the ball across the face of goal and into the bottom left corner.

The run of play was still all Chelsea's and in the 90th minute, Shevchenko scored his first league goal of the season after an Essien, Pizarro one-two set him up in the box where he fired home his shot, making it 6-0.

Chelsea showed we are truly back in the championship fight today after thumping Eriksson's Manchester side. Cech was hardly called into action thanks to the strength of our back line despite missing John Terry. Great game, brilliant result.

Chelsea (4-3-3): Cech: Belletti, Carvalho, Alex, Ferreira: Mikel, Essien, Lampard: J Cole (Shevchenko 66), Drogba (Pizarro 80), Kalou
Goals Essien (17), Drogba (30, 55), J Cole (60), Kalou (75), Schevchenko (90).
Booked Essien (25), Lampard (29).

Man City (4-4-2): Hart; Corluka, Richards, Dunne (c), Garrido; Johnson, Hamann (Ball 65), Petrov, Ireland (Vassell 63); Elano (Bianchi 71), Samaras.
Booked Richards (29).

REACTION: THAT'S WHAT WE WANT

It may not have been obvious from his expression on the touchline, but Avram Grant was more than satisfied following Saturday's 6-0 win over Manchester City.

Prior to the game, many had anticipated a close game between an improving Chelsea team and a high-flying Manchester City, off to their best start to a season for 37 years, but after 90 minutes, the margins were far greater than anyone would have expected.

Grant was delighted with the team's display, pointing to Frank Lampard in the middle of the pitch as a key ingredient in the flowing football that wowed the Stamford Bridge crowd.

'In each game, Frank is better than the game before, and he has a great attitude as a player,' Grant said. 'In the last three games we have seen fantastic assists he made. He is very important for us. We moved the ball very well, and he is a very clever player.'

Despite not scoring, Lampard was the architect for many of Chelsea's goals, and provided the focus for many of our attacks, watching on as Essien, Drogba, Cole, Kalou and Shevchenko found the net.

The nature of victory is what Grant has been talking about since he took over the reigns from José Mourinho, and today provided the perfect example of what the Israeli is after.

'I know that we cannot do it in all the games, but in modern football people come to have fun, and the way of winning is very important.

'I'm smiling now; I enjoyed the winning, and the way of winning. We are in the middle of a process and we continue to do it step by step. Today it's two steps, and it will continue,' Grant confirmed.

'I must say the players have great attitude, and are the main stars here. I have a very good staff, including my two assistants who did a great job.

'We're concentrating on attacking football, how to move right, how to behave right, and how to make them better. That's what we want from the players, but it's more important that they ask it from themselves to make it easier.'

There was also praise for substitute Andriy Shevchenko, who netted his first league goal of the season in the closing stages of the game.

'Shevchenko is a great player with a great attitude. When you see him train you see he is doing his best,' Grant explained, adding: 'It's not easy for a big star to sit on the bench but he is doing it and he scored a very typical goal for Sheva.'

Left out of the 16 today were Shaun Wright-Phillips and Florent Malouda, but Grant insists there are no problems with either player, simply a decision made on the requirements for Manchester City, vindicated by the result.

On Wright-Phillips, he said: 'He is a very good player. In Chelsea there are 25 players in the squad. 95 per cent are internationals and very good players. We can play only with 11 and 5 subs, so each game seven or eight very good players are on the side.

'This is the life in a big team with a big squad. In the last two games Shaun was not in the squad, the next game it can be others. If Malouda was in and others were not you would ask about them. There is no regular starter, what's important for me is the style of the team.'