blackburn rovers 5-0

Sunday Times
Frank Lampard brace puts Chelsea back on topChelsea 5 Blackburn Rovers 0

FOOTBALL has never been more important than family for Carlo Ancelotti who, even as a star player for AC Milan and Italy, would spend holidays back in his village near Parma, helping on the farm of his father, Giuseppe.
Chelsea’s best performance and biggest victory of his tenure were a diversion and he was subdued after the game. Giuseppe, 86, is recovering from major surgery and Ancelotti is flying back to his own country today to be with him. He was at Giuseppe’s bedside on Friday and only returned to London for this match. “I think my father was better today,” said Ancelotti. “This is life.”
Chelsea did all they could to soothe their manager, brutalising Blackburn, and Paul Robinson in particular, with their fluent, powerful and penetrative football. If all their games were at Stamford Bridge, Ancelotti’s side would be certainties for the Premier League. After Burnley’s loss to Wigan, they have the only perfect home record in the competition and have now scored 21 times at their stadium this season, conceding just once. Away, where they have lost recently to Wigan and Aston Villa, it is different. Though this win took them back to the top, they will be displaced should Manchester United win today’s northwest derby. “I’ll watch it,” said Ancelotti. “For one day I can be a fan of Liverpool.”
Despite his troubles, Ancelotti drew on his considerable reserves of warmth to reward Joe Cole with a giant smile and hearty hug when he substituted the attacker with minutes remaining. Starting a Premier League game for the first time in 10 months because of a serious knee injury, Cole emerged unscathed and, though he did not take part in the goals festival, he displayed neat touches and linked expertly with Frank Lampard, who netted twice.
“After so long out it’s not easy to play the way he did today. He is a genius,” said Ancelotti.
Cole’s return is good for England too, and timely, with Fabio Capello keen to reintroduce the player to his side in next month’s friendly against Brazil. The attacker was almost back with an immediate bang. After 29 seconds Lampard bore down the left, cut back onto his right foot and clipped the ball into the area, where Cole was arriving untracked. A large swathe of goal lay unprotected but he glanced his header wide.
A lovely first-time flick with his heel that nearly sent Nicolas Anelka clear, however, soon reaffirmed Cole’s quality.
Anelka owes much to Sam Allardyce for rehabilitating him in English football but showed little gratitude. In Chelsea’s winger-less system, much onus is on him to peel to the left to provide width. Anelka befuddled Blackburn and stretched them to create the first goal. From a switch of play, he made ground to the touchline and centred low. Gael Givet, pressured by Didier Drogba, turned the ball into his own net.
At half-time, though his side’s final ball was poor, Allardyce was pleased with his defence. “We’d only lost out to an own goal and they were restricted to shooting from distance,” he said. “But our tactics went out of the window and I’m bitterly disappointed with the players’ lack of understanding of their instructions. In the second half we were pathetic.”
Ancelotti’s take was: “Chelsea played very well and it’s not very easy to play against Chelsea when we put such great quality on the pitch, Blackburn did what they could”, and the truth was somewhere in between. Michael Ballack in particular would have been difficult for most midfields to live with. One 70-yard pass, from the right-back position to Juliano Belletti on the right wing, was a delight.
Just before half-time, Robinson distinguished himself with three saves, from a dipping long-range Drogba shot, a close-range header by the same player and a powerful John Terry volley. But the second period proved traumatic for the former England No 1. It was seconds old when Michael Essien played Drogba to the touchline and the Ivorian cut the ball back for Lampard to stroke it home. Robinson was blameless then but not soon after when Essien exposed a dreadful piece of positioning by scoring from 30 yards with a shot that seemed straightforward. Lampard then beat Robinson again, this time with a penalty when Alan Wiley punished Keith Andrews for fouling Drogba.
Drogba scored Chelsea’s fifth, Robinson rooted as the striker nodded in a Ballack corner. Terry cleared off his line to ensure there would be no consolation for Blackburn, who lost David Dunn and Chris Samba to a virus. “Several players played with it, we prepared for the match on paracetomol,” said Allardyce.
Before his humiliation, Blackburn fans honoured Robinson with chants of “England’s No 1” but on this form that status belongs to Chelsea.
Star man: Frank Lampard (Chelsea)
Yellow card: Blackburn: Pedersen.
Referee: A Wiley. Attendance: 40,836.
CHELSEA: Cech, Ivanovic, Carvalho (Bruma 67min), Terry, Belletti (Ferreira 61min), Essien, Ballack, Lampard, J Cole (Sturridge 77min), Anelka, Drogba.
BLACKBURN: Robinson, Jacobsen (Salgado 60min), Olsson, Nelsen, Givet, Andrews, Nzonzi, Pedersen (Hoilett 69min), Emerton, Diouf, Roberts (Kalinic 53min).
Lampard finds his touch
If Chelsea are to win the Premier League this season then Frank Lampard rediscovering his goalscoring form is crucial. The England midfielder’s goal against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League on Wednesday was his first in 11 games, while his two against Blackburn last night were the first for him in the league since scoring a penalty against Sunderland in August. Before last night’s excellent display Lampard, inset, had scored more times for England this season — three in five internationals — than he had in 13 league and cup games for Chelsea.
It had been Lampard’s most barren run in the league for Chelsea since 2004-05, when he did not hit his second league goal until the 11th match. A good omen for Chelsea fans is that he went on to score 13 Premier League goals that season, still his second-best tally, and Chelsea won their first title in 50 years. His best scoring season in the league was the following year when he hit 16 as Jose Mourinho’s side retained their crown.
Lampard has gone into double figures in the league for the past six seasons, in contrast to his days at West Ham, where he never scored more than seven in a season. Even his first two campaigns at Stamford Bridge after his £11m move across London brought just five and six goals respectively. Last night’s double, his third against Blackburn, made it eight goals in 16 games against the Lancashire side.

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Telegraph:
Chelsea 5 Blackburn Rovers 0
By Gerry Cox at Stamford Bridge

Joe Cole was back –and back to his best – as Chelsea moved back to the top of the Premier League by destoying a weakened Blackburn Rovers side.
Cole made his first league start since January and showed no adverse effects from the knee injury that had kept him out of action for so long. The England midfielder was full of inventiveness, always looking to play in team-mates with his trademark tricks and flicks, and fitted smoothly into a well-oiled Chelsea machine that got back to winning ways in the league after their defeat at Aston Villa last week.
Gaël Givet opened the scoring with an own goal in the 19th minute when he beat Didier Drogba to Nicolas Anelka’s low cross from the left and turned the ball past Paul Robinson.
The Blackburn keeper performed heroics, however to keep the score down to 1-0 at half-time, saving at the feet of Anelka, tipping away a John Terry volley and then pushing away a dipping shot from Drogba.
But Robinson could not perform like King Canute and hold back the Blues tide forever, and had little chance with any of the goals that put Chelsea 4-0 ahead within the hour.
Frank Lampard drove the ball home from 12 yards twice in the space of 11 minutes, first after Drogba’s low cross was only partially cleared in the 47th minute, and then from the penalty spot after the Ivory Coast striker was tripped by Ryan Nelson.
In between Lampard’s goals, Michael Essien thundered the ball past Robinson from 35 yards with a sweriving shot to make it 3-0, and then Drogba added a fifth in the 63rd minute when he headed in Michael Ballack’s corner at the near post.
It was exhibition stuff from Chelsea as they cruised to their biggest victory since they beat Sunderland 5-0 almost a year ago, and when Cole departed in the 77th minute, he got a standing ovation from Chelsea’s supporters and a hug from his manager Carlo Ancelotti.

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Independent:
Cole 'the genius' helps leaders take five
Chelsea 5 Blackburn Rovers 0: Winger's outstanding return after nine months has Ancelotti purring as Chelsea stroll to the top of Premier League

By Steve Tongue at Stamford Bridge

Pilloried last weekend after losing a second successive away game at Aston Villa, Chelsea soared back to the top of the Premier League with another emphatic victory to follow the 4-0 demolition of Atletico Madrid three days earlier.
Their manager, Carlo Ancelotti, happily restored to the dug-out after visiting his seriously ill father in Italy, may have been concerned by a failure to capitalise on first-half domination with more than a single goal, but the second period was a rout. Despite slip-ups at Wigan and Villa Park, his team remain as impregnable at the Bridge as Horatius; with Manchester United due here a fortnight today, this was an eighth successive home win of the season in all competitions, in which only one goal has been conceded. Losing Ashley Cole from the Atletico game proved far less important against a feeble Blackburn than the return of Didier Drogba and Joe Cole, both of whom were outstanding in a vibrant attacking display. Nicolas Anelka in attack and Frank Lampard, Michael Ballack and Michael Essien, the other members of the oft criticised midfield diamond, were not far behind. After a comparatively dull first half-an-hour, in which the only score was an own goal, this was Chelsea glittering and sparkling in the manner Roman Abramovich has paid so much money and paid off so many managers to see.
Only the nature of the opposition could temper the praise. Blackburn had Sam Allardyce on his feet and bellowing at them throughout the first half, but later he seemed resigned to their collective fate. There were far fewer consolations for him than in the previous away game, a 6-2 defeat at Arsenal; and on Saturday they go to Old Trafford. "The second half was pathetic," Allardyce said. "At the moment they're not good enough, not mentally resilient." It was certainly not the day for David Dunn and Christophe Samba, two of the better competitors, to be missing with a virus.
As for Chelsea's performance, "it was a pleasure to see," Ancelotti said. He described Cole as "a genius", although perhaps it was excitement at being back after nine months that caused him to fluff the chance of a goal within 30 seconds of his return. He drifted into a perfect position six yards out and was picked out by Lampard's cross, but glanced his header wide. It did not seem to matter when Chelsea scored after 20 minutes. Justifiably accused of lacking width at times, they made some through Anelka's run down the left, where Ballack found him for a low cross that Gaël Givet diverted into his own net.
Given Chelsea's recent weakness at set-pieces, the first couple of Blackburn free-kicks from out on the left were awaited with some trepidation by the home crowd. Petr Cech collected them easily enough, then caused an intake of breath by missing a long throw from Morten Gamst Pedersen. That was as good as it got for the visitors for a long while, as Lampard, Anelka, Drogba (twice) and John Terry all threatened to increase the lead.
Blackburn's only hope, that Chelsea would drift into complacency, was shattered by four more goals in the first 20 minutes of the second half. First, Essien sent Drogba thrusting into the penalty area and he crossed low, Lars Jacobsen only diverting the ball out to Lampard for a second goal in four days after 10 games without one. Then, as Blackburn prepared to replace the hapless Jason Roberts, Essien decided to have a pop from 35 yards and a combination of power and swerve defeated Paul Robinson.
The goalkeeper had earlier saved brilliantly from John Terry but he was to be let down by his leaky defence twice more.
Ryan Nelsen brought down Drogba to give Lampard a second goal, this time from the penalty spot, and the referee Alan Wiley, looking fit enough here, could easily have pointed to the spot again as Robinson challenged Drogba without taking the ball. The Ivorian had his revenge with a header from Ballack's corner for the fifth goal. As thoughts turn to Anfield this afternoon, Ancelotti said: "For one day I can be a fan of Liverpool."
Attendance: 40,836
Referee: Alan Wiley
Man of the match: Drogba
Match rating: 7/10

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Observer:
Chelsea return to summit with rout of Blackburn
Chelsea 5 Givet (og) 20, Lampard 48, Essien 52, Lampard (pen) 59, Drogba 64

Blackburn Rovers 0
Amy Lawrence at Stamford Bridge

Nine goals in four days seems like a more than reasonable way to get a blip out of the system. During the second-half tornado, a blue force ripped through Blackburn, inhabitants of the Shed End jumped with enough vigour to test the stand's foundations, and there was a buzz in the air that made you wonder if Carlo Ancelotti had found the X-factor Roman Abramovich has long been after.
This was a thrill-a-minute Chelsea, a forward-thinking Chelsea, a team brimming with goals and attacking intent. Frank Lampard gave a vintage display. Didier Drogba was a menace all evening. Michael Essien scored a picturebook goal. And Joe Cole enjoyed his first league start since 11 January at the head of the midf flashes even though he was understandably a little rusty. Ancelotti was impressed enough to call him "a genius".
Such was Cole's impact and all-round popularity, Lampard confessed later to feeling bad that he had taken the penalty for Chelsea's fourth goal, rather than giving it to his mate after an eight-month absence.
In the past week, Chelsea have responded powerfully to setbacks at Aston Villa and Wigan. It was as if they took surrendering top spot as a personal insult. This was an emphatic way to retake the position, even though Manchester United may overtake them again at Anfield today. "For one day only, I will be a fan of Liverpool," smiled Ancelotti.
What a bloody nose for a Blackburn team who are suffering notable travel sickness. They are in the middle of a run on the road that has served up Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United. Here, as at Emirates Stadium, they were out of their depth. Sam Allardyce intimated he may need to field 13 players to get an improvement next time out.
"Pathetic," was how Blackburn's manager condemned what he saw. "I am bitterly disappointed in the players' lack of understanding of the situation. All the tactics went out the window. We haven't got the resilience, mental strength, physical presence to go away from home and win games." It did not help that a virus is sweeping through the squad.
They were only a goal down at half-time. Michael Ballack's slide-rule pass sent Nicolas Anelka scurrying up the left flank. The Frenchman clipped a cross in the general direction of the onrushing Didier Drogba. Frankly, that was near enough. Just having Drogba breathing down his neck was sufficient to panic Gaël Givet into turning the ball past Paul Robinson. The crestfallen defender covered his head with his shirt in dismay. A tough task for Blackburn just got tougher. Robinson kept them in contention for a while. But the breathing space Chelsea craved arrived early in the second half, with two goals in four minutes — the signal for a complete breakdown in the opposition ranks. Lampard, fresh from rediscovering his scoring touch in midweek, scored with a trademark finish when Drogba's cross was cleared into his path.
Then came the moment that really liberated Chelsea and clicked the enjoyment button into overdrive. Essien was 35 yards out when he let fly with a ferocious drive that glossed with a mighty swerve. With that, Robinson's evening took a turn for the worse. It was potshot time.
There was a tangible shift in Chelsea's body language. Everybody wanted a piece of the action, with the Stamford Bridge brigade yelling "shoooot" at will. Anelka seized the moment to fire one in at Robinson. The goalkeeper seemed struck by nerves and butterfingers.
Just before the hour, Ryan Nelsen was penalised for a trip on Drogba and Lampard stepped up for the penalty. He sent Robinson the wrong way to dispatch his third goal of the week. He might have had another had Alan Wiley awarded another penalty when Robinson tripped Drogba. Not to be.
In the 63rd minute, Chelsea made the most of a set piece as Drogba slammed a header past Robinson. This was perhaps the most satisfying goal of all for Ancelotti. "After Aston Villa, we had a good solution about set plays," he pointed out. "We scored two against Atlético Madrid and one here. We have improved very quickly and very well."
All in all, it made for the best performance since he arrived at the club. Ancelotti returned to Italy after the game to see his ailing father, but expects to be back in London tomorrow morning with good news about his recovery.
THE FANS' PLAYER RATINGS AND VERDICT
Trizia Fiorellino, Chelsea Supporters Group A good win, although Blackburn were the makers of their own undoing with an absolutely woeful performance. I don't want to sound arrogant, but I don't think we ever had to get out of second gear and still managed to absolutely hammer them. Joe Cole did well on his first start after injury, even though he looked knackered after half an hour. We've missed his creative passes. I felt sorry for the Blackburn supporters who had come down – that was a performance to make you angry.
The fan's player ratings Cech 7; Ivanovic 7, Carvalho 7 (Bruma 66 7), Terry 8, Belletti 7 (Ferreira 60 7); Essien 8, Ballack 8, Lampard 9; J Cole 8 (Sturridge 76 7); Anelka 7, Drogba 8
Mike Delap, Blackburn.VitalFootball.co.uk At least against Arsenal a couple of weeks ago we gave it a good go. Here, we looked more concerned with damage limitation and avoiding a cricket score. It's easy to make excuses and the absence of our biggest goal threats in Samba and Dunn didn't help. But Nzonzi was the only one who looked interested in getting on the ball and making something happen. It's hard to watch Blackburn play like that when you know they're much better than what you're witnessing.
The fan's player ratings Robinson 6; Jacobsen 5 (Salgado 59 5), Nelsen 5, Givet 4, Olsson 6; Diouf 5, Emerton 5, Nzonzi 6, Andrews 4, Pedersen 4 (Hoilett 68 6); Roberts 5 (Kalinic 53 6)

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Mail:
Chelsea 5 Blackburn 0:

Five star Blues head back to the top of Premier League with thumping victory

Something like normal service has resumed at Chelsea, with nine goals in a week and two resounding victories.
Frank Lampard is scoring freely again, Joe Cole has returned from injury and all was well with the world at Stamford Bridge yesterday evening.Chelsea were impressive as they swept aside an abject Blackburn Rovers to return to the top of the Premier League.
That said, any manager feeling an inkling of pressure from his employers could not wish for more than to encounter Atletico Madrid, a shadow of the team who qualified for the Champions League, and this woeful Blackburn side, who declined to compete.For now, Carlo Ancelotti will worry little about the quality of his opponents while emphasising the positives of his Chelsea players.They have responded positively to defeats by Wigan and Aston Villa in what has been an emotional week for their manager, who spent much of it in Italy tending to his seriously ill father, Giuseppe.
Regarding more mundane matters on the pitch, he will know that sterner tests lie ahead, notably next month when Manchester United and Arsenal visit, and that better teams will exploit Chelsea’s evident weaknesses.But any opponents who decline to display whole-hearted commitment against them will be dispatched in emphatic fashion, as Blackburn were.Ancelotti considered yesterday’s performance Chelsea’s best in his short reign, a pleasure not shared, obviously, by his Blackburn counterpart.‘The second half was pathetic,’ said Sam Allardyce. ‘At the moment, these players are not good enough, bottom line.
The mental resilience is not there, the physical challenge is not there; they just want to play football and that doesn’t get you results.’Blackburn were without key players, including David Dunn and Christopher Samba, who were struck down with a virus, Franco di Santo, who was ineligible, and Pascal Chimbonda, who had a calf injury.
Nevertheless, as Allardyce made clear, they lacked basic competitive mettle. As for Chelsea, none could be happier with his performance than Joe Cole, relishing his first Premier League start since sustaining a knee injury last January.His energy and sharpness cannot have failed to impress the watching Franco Baldini, assistant to England manager Fabio Capello, and one audacious piece of skill on 62 minutes, when he executed a chip by dragging his left foot behind his right, sent Paul Robinson scrambling to save.Indeed, his only disappointment can have been his failure to score. His chance, when it came, was perhaps a little too early into his comeback.
Just 25 seconds had passed when Frank Lampard set him up for a free header six yards out; Cole directed it wide but did little wrong thereafter.‘I was very impressed,’ said Ancelotti. ‘He is a genius. He has fantastic quality in midfield. After nine months out it is not easy to play like Joe played. I’m happy for him and for us, as he’s an important player.’Despite Chelsea missing a plethora of chances, with Didier Drogba, Nicolas Anelka, Michael Ballack and Lampard all going close after Cole’s first-minute miss, it took a Blackburn defender to set them on their way after 20 minutes.
Ballack, dominant in midfield, sent Anelka sprinting down the left, past Lars Jacobsen, and he cut inside and delivered a cross which perplexed the retreating Gael Givet. In his efforts to steer the ball away, Givet turned it into his own net.The game effectively ended as a contest three minutes after halftime when Drogba tore past Martin Olsson to cross. Jacobsen failed to clear and Lampard seized on the opportunity to steer the ball past a cluster of bodies and into the net.If Blackburn had any inclination to strike back, all remaining resolve dissipated on 52 minutes when Michael Essien unleashed a 35-yard strike that thundered past Robinson, Blackburn allowing Essien time and space to line up his shot, with Steven N’zonzi making but a token effort to close down his opponent.So there could be little sympathy for them on 59 minutes when Ryan Nelsen felt he was hard done by in conceding a penalty, with Drogba tumbling to the ground with his customary histrionics.Referee Alan Wiley was well up with the play and made the correct call, as Nelsen had panicked after being dispossessed by the Ivorian and failed to play the ball.
Lampard thumped the penalty home for his third goal of the week. Freed of the responsibility at the apex of Chelsea midfield diamond, the Lampard of old is beginning to re-emerge.More was to come, with Blackburn by now a shambles and Chelsea rampant. When Blackburn failed to defend a Ballack corner on 64 minutes, Drogba headed in from close range, despite Nelsen trying to unsettle him, to finally claim the goal his performance merited.
Even John Terry went close with a sweetly executed volley from just inside the box, which required a smart save from Robinson.
It was that kind of day for Chelsea.

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NOTW:

COLE ENJOYS ORGY OF SHOWBOATING Chelsea 5 Blackburn 0
By Andy Dunn

JOE COLE is a big fan of rhyming slang. And after 75 minutes of this shamefully one-sided romp, he was cream-crackered.
In fact, he looked like he'd been up and down the apples 'n pears a thousand times.
But no one had a bigger smile on his boat race.
Not Frank Lampard, whose renaissance after the briefest of lulls doubled his season's goal tally.
Not Didier Drogba, whose all-round performance - capped with a headed formality - was a 90-minute testimony to all that is now right with his game and his attitude.
Not Michael Essien, whose spectacular strike was merely one small act in a Chelsea carnival.
Not Carlo Ancelotti, for whom this early- evening stroll provided some comforting distraction from far more serious matters back home.
Cole was the one with a beam of floodlight wattage.
He had performed like a kid opening his Christmas presents. Not knowing what to play with and when.
All those pent-up flicks, dinks, dummies, backheels - stored over eight months of injury-enforced inactivity - were released in an orgy of showboating.
Jose Mourinho would probably have booted him halfway down the King's Road.
Ancelotti indulged him.
And it was fantastic to see.
Some things came off, some didn't. He wasn't the best player on the park - not by a distance.
Drogba and Lampard could scrap for that title.
But the high-fives all round when he puffed his way to the dugout with a quarter of an hour left and the standing ovation that reverberated around Stamford Bridge told you what this occasion was all about.
This was the moment - his first Premier League start since January - that Chelsea and England fans have been waiting for.
And it was a return that lifted club and country spirits.
Effervescent
Anticipating his comeback a couple of weeks back, Cole said he was licking his lips at the prospect of playing in the sausage roll.
(Well, he didn't actually say licking his lips but he did say sausage roll.)
The sausage roll is his own improvised, contemporary Cockney rhyming slang. For the hole.
In the hole. Geddit.
Joe wasn't exactly in the hole but he provided more attacking threat in his full return than Deco has in all his appearances this season.
It was clear that Lampard and Michael Ballack relished his effervescent presence.
Ditto Nicolas Anelka and Drogba.
Cole could claim a distant assist for Chelsea's opener, bringing down a Juliano Belletti clearance before shuttling possession to Ballack.
Anelka peeled left and dashed on to the pass before sending a cross into the cluster of onrushing bodies.
And now, it seems, Drogba only has to stare to score. Gael Givet had stolen a march on the Chelsea striker but seized by panic, slid in the own goal. Defensive apologists may call it unlucky, even unavoidable. It was nothing of the sort.
It was poor defending - just as it had been an inexcusably poor cross from Morten Gamst Pedersen that had set the Chelsea counter-attack in motion.
That typified Blackburn's delivery. Worse than the Royal Mail.
When you place so much store on set-pieces - as Rovers did yesterday - then execution is vital.
Brett Emerton was one of the main culprits. It was impractical to log the amount of kicks that flew in isolation towards Petr Cech.
He must have thought his practice routine had not finished. It certainly gave him some misplaced confidence - his spillage from a throw-in giving Chelsea their only anxious first-half moment.
Cech is having an awkward season. It is clear he is trying to rebuild confidence threatened not only by some poor performances for Chelsea but also by the Czech Republic's failure to qualify for the World Cup finals.
He is trying to do it by being a touch more dominant. And with that comes risks.
Against more dangerous opposition, he will always carry a threat to his own team.

Blackburn might have been more dangerous had David Dunn not cried off. Without his creativity, they looked bereft of genuine invention. But Givet's aberration apart, they defended stoutly enough. Well, in the first half at least.
None more stoutly than Paul Robinson - no pun intended, Paul. Honest.
He made himself big - no pun intended again - to deny Anelka after a slick move inspired by Cole and he risked finger-dislocation to divert a strike of eye-popping velocity from Drogba.
Having clicked them back into place, Robinson then produced one for the season's highlights.
Ricardo Carvalho headed into the path of John Terry, who connected sweetly with a kung-fu kick.
As agile a piece of work as you are likely to see somehow kept it out.
Fabio Capello had been at White Hart Lane earlier in the afternoon and decided not to dice with tea-time London traffic. But his No 2 Franco Baldini - as well as filling his notebook full of Cole - was surely impressed with Robinson's performance.
He must be among England's top three form keepers right at this moment.
He didn't have to be on his best form to deal with Lampard's first-half output - prolific as it was.
Buoyed by his first goal for a while in midweek, Lampard's every touch was a shot.
He took the 'If you don't buy a ticket . . . ' adage to ridiculous extremes.
You wouldn't want to be behind Frank in a lottery queue.
But we all know it pays off.
Ease
And, sure enough, his third of the season arrived soon after half-time. Drogba rolled Givet with ridiculous ease, his cut-back was partially cleared and Lampard welcomed the invitation.
A goal that was an advert for Lampard's predatory instincts and Drogba's new-found selflessness. What stuffing had been inside Blackburn was gone.
And even Robinson appeared deflated, floundering for the first time when Essien's long-range strike smuggled itself inside the near post.
In response, Sam Allardyce threw on a couple of subs - his team threw in the towel.
Ryan Nelsen joined the queue of defenders to be humiliated by Drogba. Only the supremely-fit Alan Wiley could keep up, striding alongside when Nelsen tripped the Ivorian.
Lampard - who else? - converted from the spot.
And Drogba - who, and this is not a misprint, later tried to stay on his feet after Robinson rushed out irresponsibly - received his due reward when Ballack's corner and abysmal Rovers defending allowed him to glance home the fifth.
The gap between the two teams was, quite frankly, an embarrassment - even though Blackburn were shorn of numbers.
Not that it bothered Cole.
Blowing desperately for most of the second half, he was finally spared exhaustion when Ancelotti put up his number.
The acclaim from the crowd was thunderous. And there was only one name on their lips as they headed for the rub-a-dub-dub.
Cole, himself, had broken into that wonderful grin before he fell into the arms of his manager.
Ancelotti probably welcomed the hug for different reasons - for Cole, it was an embrace that confirmed he is back doing what he loves.
Playing football with a smile.