Chelsea 5-0 Middlesbrough

Luiz Felipe Scolari took his injury hit squad to Teeside to take on a Middlesbrough side keen to inflict our first defeat of the season upon us. Despite the injuries, Scolari preferred to focus on those players who were fit rather than those who were not.

As usual his words were to prove spot on as those who were fit produced a sparkling performance to spank Middlesbrough 5-0!

Team News - Missing from contention today were Michael Essien, Ricardo Carvalho, Ashley Cole, Joe Cole, Michael Ballack, Petr Cech and Didier Drogba, players that would walk into most Premier League teams. However, the fact that they were out of contention gave the likes of Belletti, Bridge and Cudicini the chance to impress whilst lurking on the bench, desperate to get a bit of the action were the likes of Stoch, Sinclair and Mancienne.

Out of those who had been rated doubtful were Terry, Alex and Bosingwa whilst Deco was considered fit enough to take a place on the bench.

First Half - Chelsea got the action underway and were to go on to control the first half against a Middlesbrough team that were content to sit too deep and invite us on to them. However, Chelsea were only to score the one goal to leave matters delicately poised for the second forty-five minutes.

The goal came after fourteen minutes and was scored by Salomon Kalou, his second Premier League goal of the season. It came after good work from Wayne Bridge who sped down the left to deliver a ball into the box. Boro looked to have cleared the ball but Chelsea enjoyed a slice of luck when Juliano Belletti`s shot was deflected straight into the path of the lurking Kalou and he doesn`t waste those sorts of chances.

The rest of the half saw Chelsea give a display of passing that made football look easy but without capitalising on their dominance. Malouda saw a shot-comecross drift wide, Mikel had a long range effort deflected wide whilst Frank Lampard somehow, after great work from Malouda, allowed Jonathon Grounds to deflect his goal bound effort wide.

As the half came to a close Boro did improve. One free kick saw a weak shot deflect off the wall and into the grateful Cudicini`s arms and just before the whistle signalled the end of the one minute stoppage time Carlo did well to collect a dangerous looking ball into the danger area, albeit at the second attempt.

Second Half - Middlesbrough got the second half underway but any thoughts they had of getting back on level terms were blasted away when Chelsea scored twice in two minutes and seven seconds.

The first of this brace came when Belletti latched on to a pass some thirty yards out and sent a screamer past Turnbull into the top corner of the net to make it 2-0. One hundred and twenty-seven seconds later it was three thanks to Kalou.

Malouda, causing problems to a very nervous Boro defence cut the ball back and Kalou swivelled to score although the shot did get a deflection off an unfortunate defender. Just past the hour mark Chelsea made it 4-0 when Lampard stooped to head a Kalou cross home. Now it was only a matter of how many we could rack up and Malouda duly obliged with a fifth.

It came after yet more poor defending and when Anelka tried a crisp low shot the keeper made a hash of it putting it onto the post for Malouda to burst in and net from close range.

The victory could have been heavier, Lampard hit the side netting with a low shot, Malouda capitalised on a Grounds mistake but got caught in two minds and Turnbull produced a great save to deny Anelka.

It`s now over eight hours since we`ve conceded a goal, it was our biggest away win for five years and we`re still unbeaten, in the league this calendar year, bring on Roma and Liverpool!

Team - Cudicini, Bosingwa, Terry, Alex, Bridge (Ferreira - 65), Belletti, Mikel, Lampard (Deco - 73), Kalou, Anelka (Sinclair -78), Malouda

Unused Subs - Hilario, Ivanovic, Mancienne, Stoch.

Chelsea Scorers - Kalou (2), Belletti, Lampard, Malouda

Chelsea Yellow Cards - Nil

Chelsea Red Cards - Nil