west bromwich albion 6-0

Independent:

Drogba treble gets Chelsea in the groove

Chelsea 6 West Bromwich Albion 0: Ivory Coast striker gives champions a flying start as Albion fluff their lines on return to the top flight

By Mark Fleming at Stamford Bridge

It was as if the World Cup had never happened as Chelsea's star names came to the fore, having flopped for their countries on the biggest stage. Didier Drogba was a marginal figure for Ivory Coast, but here he was playing again with conviction and passion, scoring a hat-trick that provided remarkable symmetry with the end of last season, when he scored three goals in Chelsea's 8-0 demolition of Wigan that clinched the Premier League title on the final day.
Frank Lampard was also on the scoresheet for Chelsea with his 158th goal for the club, as if his ineffective displays for England in South Africa were just a bad dream.
John Terry was back to his assured best, although it must be said he barely had to break into a sweat to keep West Bromwich Albion at bay. And Florent Malouda's double helped him banish memories of France's farcical World Cup campaign. Nicolas Anelka, John Obi Mikel, Ashley Cole – across the pitch there were Chelsea players who had all experienced World Cups to forget.
Yet put them in a Chelsea shirt and they are different animals. As the fifth goal flew in, the Chelsea fans inside Stamford Bridge sang, "Top of the League, we're having a laugh", as the champions moved above Blackpool whose unlikely leadership of the division had lasted only a couple of hours.
The players are reportedly unhappy that Chelsea's owner, Roman Abramovich, has altered their bonus payments this season, scrapping the incentives for individual games but retaining payouts for every trophy they win. The chairman, Bruce Buck, appeared to confirm the change, saying: "It's a confidential matter but the new rules from Uefa require a club to balance its books. Every club has to adjust."
There was no sign on the pitch, however, that austerity is breeding discontent, as Chelsea took to the return of the Premier League with a relish that was far too much for the recently promoted West Bromwich.
The Chelsea manager, Carlo Ancelotti, played down the scoreline, saying: "They did their job, nothing special. This team can play and score a lot of goals, this is our job."
The performance went some way to answer questions that had been raised during pre-season. Chelsea have lost five senior players since winning the Double in May – Joe Cole, Michael Ballack, Ricardo Carvalho, Deco and Juliano Belletti – and a dismal run of four defeats in a row in pre-season, including last weekend's 3-1 loss to Manchester United at Wembley, had created a subdued atmosphere in the build-up to their title defence.
Any suggestions, though, that Ancelotti's side were off the pace were dispelled within six minutes. Malouda was fouled by Pablo Ibanez just outside the penalty area. Drogba's 29 League goals last season clearly earned him the right to have the first pop at goal and although his effort was fairly tame it was too much for West Bromwich's goalkeeper, Scott Carson, who fumbled the wet ball allowing Mikel to poke it to the waiting Malouda, who fired through the legs of Graham Dorrans.
A brief flurry from West Bromwich created a couple of chances. Dorrans' low, skidding shot caught a deflection off Terry and Petr Cech, who returned to the Chelsea line-up after a month out with a calf injury, saved down low. Roman Bednar thought he had beaten the offside trap and fired into Cech's goal, only for the effort to be rightly ruled out for offside.
Chelsea reasserted their authority just before half-time, when Drogba's free-kick found a gaping hole in the wall. Terry set up Chelsea's third, with a purposeful header from a Malouda corner that Youssouf Mulumbu cleared off the line, only for Drogba to pounce with typical tenacity.
There was a sense of the inevitable about Chelsea's fourth as Anelka passed to Cole who squared for Lampard to finish. The England midfielder was immediately withdrawn but the punishment did not cease for Albion, with Drogba completing another hat-trick with a shot that took a huge deflection off Gabriel Tamas. Malouda added his second, and Chelsea's sixth, in the final minute, pouncing on Anelka's through-ball to score off the inside of the post.
This was no way to welcome back the West Bromwich manager, Roberto Di Matteo, a Chelsea legend thanks to two FA Cup final-winning goals. Di Matteo, who was cheered by home fans, said: "It was great to see that they had not forgotten me, but I would have preferred to have got something for my team."

Attendance: 41,589
Referee: Mark Clattenburg
Man of the match: Drogba
Match rating: 8/10

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Observer:

Didier Drogba and Chelsea put West Brom to the sword

Chelsea 6 Malouda 6, Drogba 45, Drogba 55, Lampard 63, Drogba 68, Malouda 90
West Brom 0
Amy Lawrence at Stamford Bridge

When you have scored 103 goals and set a scoring record in your last season, it is generosity beyond the call of duty for your first opponents of this term to be doling out gifts. Scott Carson continued the fine traditions of post-modern England goalkeepers by panicking and spilling with all the grace of a Laurel and Hardy sketch. The season was only five minutes old and Chelsea were back in the old routine. The goal machine clicked back into gear.
Carlo Ancelotti wants his team to target a quadruple, and it spoke volumes for their capacity to focus that they cruised to a high-scoring victory and still had two or three gears in reserve. They were 3-0 up inside an hour without breaking sweat. Five up with more than 20 minutes to go. Didier Drogba helped himself to a hat-trick and two of the regular scorers, Frank Lampard and Florent Malouda, slipped back into the groove.
Ancelotti suggested it was less of a sign to the rest of the league than it was to the Chelsea squad themselves. "We had a difficult pre-season so it was a message to us. We did our job. Nothing special," noted the Italian master of understatement, apparently oblivious to the fact it is not every season that a team wins 6-0 on day one.
World Cup? What World Cup? For the likes of Drogba, Lampard and Malouda, all of whom endured grim disappointment of one kind or another in South Africa, the bad memories are blotted out by a return to winning ways, to cheerful supporters, to a much-loved coach and a style that they love and that loves them.
For Roberto Di Matteo, returning to his old stamping ground, it was frustrating to make his debut as a Premier League manager by watching his team do themselves no favours with slack defending. It took a mere five minutes for Chelsea to carry on where they left off, with a hell of a nose for sniffing out a goal. After Malouda had been tripped on the cusp of the area, Drogba sized up the free-kick in his white and luminous orange boots. He floated his set-piece ball over the wall and straight enough at the goalkeeper, but Carson looked shell- shocked as he parried meekly into the path of Mikel John Obi. A dinked pass invited Malouda to snaffle the season's opener for his club.
Six minutes before the break, Carson was again under the cosh from a free kick. This time, Lampard crashed the ball straight through the wall, he threw his hands in front of his face to block, and Malouda was first to the rebound. He headed over. Just before half-time, Drogba hovered over another dead ball, and the Chelsea fans in the Shed End started chanting "dodgy keeper".
There was not a huge amount Carson could do, however, as the wall crumbled. The shot slithered through a gap. Drogba celebrated.
West Brom could hardly have spent half-time talking about anything other than damage limitation. But Chelsea were able to puncture them again 10 minutes into the second half. Another set-piece – this time a corner – unnerved the West Brom rearguard. Although John Terry's glancing header was shuffled off the line by Youssouf Mulumbu, Anelka helped to scramble the ball to Drogba, who finished like all hungry strikers should. "The first three goals were bad," said Di Matteo. "We made mistakes at set pieces and we'll have to learn very quickly and improve very quickly. It was too easy."
Lampard gave Chelsea their first goal from open play. Anelka and Ashley Cole combined down the left to tee him up, and he slotted in neatly at the near post.
Five minutes later Drogba's arms were aloft to acclaim a hat-trick. A crashing drive ricocheted off Gabriel Tamas's head and Carson was plucking the ball out of his net once more. Malouda added a sixth with a crisp finish off the post in the last minute.
And with that flourish Chelsea won on the opening day for the ninth time in succession. Ominous? Naturally. Having finished 2009-10 with an 8-0 victory, Chelsea have scored 14 in two games.
As for West Brom, they have been involved in promotion or relegation in seven of the past nine seasons. You wouldn't bet on another change of scenery come May. Although, to give it some perspective, everyone in the Premier League knows Chelsea are capable of inflicting this damage routinely.
West Brom could hardly have endured a more testing opening game back among the big boys. The fixture computer has not been generous, throwing up visits to Stamford Bridge, Anfield, the Emirates and Old Trafford, as well as a home game against top-four newcomers Tottenham, in their first eight outings.
"It doesn't get tougher than that," said Di Matteo. "It would be tough for any club, never mind a newly promoted team like us. We have a home game next Saturday and hopefully we can bounce back and get our first points. Tomorrow is another day."

THE FANS' PLAYER RATINGS AND VERDICT

KAREN CHILDS, Observer reader

We have started this season as we finished last, in pretty good form. I didn't expect it to be that easy, and I was concerned before the game that certain players might not be fit, especially Drogba and Cech, and we hadn't had a good pre-season. But all doubts were wiped away, it was a great performance, good goals, good team play. They all played very unselfishly and with Lampard's goal, Ashley Cole could easily have scored himself. Will it all carry on from here? It could do - most of them looked sharp. The gap between the two teams on paper and on the pitch was huge. We were in a different league.

The fan's player ratings
Cech 7; Ferreira 7 (Ivanovic 60 7), Alex 7, Terry 8, Cole 8; Essien 8, Mikel 7, Lampard 8 (Benayoun 64 7); Anelka 7, Drogba 9 (Kalou 70 7), Malouda 8

TERRY WILLS,Baggies@yahoogroups.com

In the first half we played reasonably well but the second goal just before half-time killed the game and I have to say Scott Carson had a nightmare. In the second half we were never in it. You could tell by the body language it was hurting, but I thought we still played reasonably well although we never looked like shaking Chelsea. The difference in leagues showed today and by the end I was grateful it was only six. There were some reasonable individual performances, Dorrans had a fair game, so did Morrison and Jara. But nobody could really harm Chelsea and our defence definitely needs strengthening.
The fan's player ratings

Carson 3; Jara 5, Tamas 5, Ibáñez 6, Cech 5; Mulumbu 7, Brunt 5; Morrison 5; Dorrans 6 (Cox 67 6) Thomas 7 (Barnes 84 n/a), Bednar 5 (Miller 67 6)

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Telegraph:

Chelsea 6 West Bromwich Albion 0
Malouda (6, 90)Drogba (45, 55, 68)Lampard (63) (HT 2-0)
By Jeremy Wilson

Six goals, a hat-trick from Didier Drogba and immediately back on top of the league. As a statement of intent, this was so emphatic that some bookmakers are already quoting odds on Chelsea remaining at the summit of the Premier League all the way until May.
Half of Carlo Ancelotti’s outfield team were involved in torrid World Cup campaigns with England or France but, for 90 minutes, it was as if the summer never happened for Florent Malouda, Ashley Cole, John Terry, Nicolas Anelka and Frank Lampard.
After ending last season with respective 8-0 and 7-0 home thrashings of Wigan and Stoke, there was also a certain symmetry about beginning this campaign with a 6-0 thumping of West Bromwich Albion. Most ominously, Ancelotti believes his World Cup players remain around two weeks short of optimum fitness.
“This is a message for us because we had a difficult pre-season but now everything has come back to be OK,” he said. “We did our job, nothing special. The squad is complete.”
Reports that the players will be denied their usual win bonuses this season as part of a cost-cutting measure certainly had no tangible impact on the collective motivation. “To watch how they played, I think they are very happy,” Ancelotti said.
Yet Chelsea also continue to win football matches rather more easily than new friends. Having won the Double last season, Terry bullishly declared in his programme notes that a repeat of the most successful season in the club’s history was the “minimum” aim for this campaign.
Chairman Bruce Buck was even more daring in deciding to answer Joe Cole’s declaration that, in Liverpool, he was joining the biggest club in England. “Joe Cole has gone to a smallish club somewhere north of the M25,” he wrote.
Aside from the attempted humour, the more interesting point is the way Chelsea have seamlessly continued their form of last season despite the departures of Cole and four other senior players.
With Michael Essien again driving his team forward following knee ligament surgery, they were ahead within six minutes after Malouda was upended on the edge of the penalty area to present Drogba with a first sight of goal.
His free-kick was spilled by Scott Carson, with the rebound pounced upon by John Obi Mikel, who hooked the ball across the penalty area for Malouda to finish.
Roberto di Matteo, the West Brom manager, had been enthusiastically welcomed back to Stamford Bridge but could hardly have looked more depressed at the way the match had started. His team had clearly come with the principal objective of frustrating Chelsea by getting men behind the ball, but the early goal ensured there would have to be rather more adventure from his players, leaving space for Chelsea.
The second goal came from another free-kick. Drogba had looked too far from goal to offer any major danger, but his shot somehow went through the West Brom wall and then inside Carson’s near-post.
West Brom had not scored a league goal at Stamford Bridge since 1988 and offered only a sporadic threat before Drogba further extended Chelsea’s lead in the 56th minute from yet another set piece. Terry and Anelka had efforts blocked before Drogba scrambled the ball past Carson.
As well as Drogba, Lampard also continued his remarkable goal-scoring of last season by wrong-footing Carson after more excellent work from Malouda. Drogba’s long-range shot then took a cruel deflection off Gabriel Tamas and past Carson, with the rout completed when Malouda placed Anelka’s through-ball in off the post.


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Mail:

Chelsea 6 West Bromwich Albion 0: Didier Drogba fires hat-trick as rampant Blues warn rivals they want to keep their title

By Ian Ridley

Roman Abramovich is believed to have dispensed with the win bonuses at Stamford Bridge - perhaps taking advantage of the national mood for cuts - and the Chelsea owner's already highly-paid players should not complain when it comes to candy-from-kiddies games like this. Welcome back to the Premier League, West Bromwich Albion.
Newly-promoted Albion were washed away amid the heavy showers in west London last night as the Double holders resumed where they left off, with last season's Golden Boot Didier Drogba hitting a hat-trick as he had done when Chelsea clinched the title with an 8-0 win over Wigan.
Florent Malouda opened and closed the scoring, with Frank Lampard also netting in between. Poor Roberto di Matteo, forced to endure humiliation on his return as a manager to the venue he graced as a player.
And poor Blackpool. It may be ridiculously early for a league table, but Chelsea were not about to give the Premier League newcomers more than a few hours in the limelight. This without the incentive of extra remuneration, the slashing of which was all but confirmed by Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck.'It is a confidential matter,' he said, 'but the new rules from UEFA require a club to balance its books. Every club has to look at its expenses and adjust.'In his programme notes, Buck also joked about Joe Cole's move to 'a smallish club somewhere north of the M25', thus opening the jousting among the big clubs ahead of Liverpool's opener against Arsenal today and Manchester United's against Newcastle tomorrow.
It was certainly as if Chelsea had never been away. Rampant, swaggering, they shook off a poor pre-season, culminating in a 3-1 defeat by United in the FA Community Shield, to record their ninth consecutive opening-day victory and their ninth straight win over Albion in the Premier League. There was certainly a routine response from Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti. 'We did our job,' he said. 'It was nothing special.' And reports of disquiet among the players about losing bonuses? 'This is a matter between players and the owner. I think you saw from how they played that they are very happy.'
Any hope that Albion had rested with possible resentment among the Chelsea squad, along with their pre-season form, but that straw-clutching lasted just five minutes and 15 seconds.
After Pablo Ibanez had fouled Malouda 20 yards out, Drogba curled in the free-kick, which was spilled by Scott Carson. John Obi Mikel turned the ball back to Malouda who had a simple tap-in to give Chelsea the lead. Albion did offer brief resistance, with talented attacker Graham Dorrans forcing Petr Cech into a low save with a shot that skidded off John Terry. Roman Bednar did have the ball in the Chelsea net, but was just offside.
Albion thought they had made it to half-time just a goal behind when Malouda headed over a gaping goal, but the second arrived on the cusp of the interval, Drogba's free-kick allowed to penetrate a feeble wall and beat the scrambling Carson. The third arrived when Terry headed Malouda's inswinging corner goalwards. Youssuf Malumbu blocked it on the line but Drogba followed up in the melee to slam home.
Lampard claimed the fourth with the porous Albion defence carved apart by neat passing between Nicolas Anelka and Ashley Cole, who slipped the ball to his England colleague to tuck home from close range. It was Lampard's last action and soon Drogba joined him on the sidelines, but not before claiming his third.
Albion were unable to clear their lines properly and the Ivorian lashed home from 25 yards, though it needed a deflection off Gabriel Tamas. Malouda completed the rout after being put through by Anelka.
Di Matteo, accorded a good reception, was left to lament: 'It's good that they don't forget you but I would have preferred to have left with a result. You can see why they are champions.' And that was with Lampard and Drogba still not match fit and new signing Ramires to come. We await them at full strength, and stronger competition than West Bromwich, to see just how potent Chelsea really are this season.

MATCH FACTS Chelsea (4-3-3): Cech; Ferreira (Ivanovic 60min), Alex, Terry, Cole; Essien, Mikel, Lampard (Benayoun 64); Anelka, Drogba (Kalou 70), Malouda. Subs (not used): Hilario, Zhirkov, Sturridge, Van Aanholt. Booked: Ferreira.

West Brom (4-4-1-1): Carson; Jara, Ibanez, Tamas, Cech; Morrison, Malumbu, Brunt, Thomas (Barnes 84); Dorrans (Cox 67); Bednar (Miller 67). Subs (not used): Myhill, Olsson, Barnes, Miller, Reid, Shorey, Cox.

Referee: M Clattenburg (Tyne and Wear).

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NOTW:

IT'S RAINING CATS AND DROGS
Chelsea 6 West Brom 0
By Andy Dunn

AS JT so succinctly put it in his captain's programme notes, no Joe, Bally, Bella, Riccy or Deco*.
Quite. Good job, they've still got Lamps, Flo, Nic and the Big Fella.
Shorn of a handful of senior players but a very familiar Chelsea - ruthless destroyers of mediocre opposition.
New ponytail for Didier Drogba, same old bullying story.
Chelsea are not champions merely because they plunder heavily on flat tracks.
(And a wet-behind-the-ears West Brom on a wet surface provided for the flattest of tracks.)
But it sure does help.
Of the cartel of title challengers, few put the ordinary to the sword quite like Chelsea.
Three sevens and an eight here last season. Six yesterday.
Chelsea's goal record at Stamford Bridge reads like a bingo card.
That is because teams with the sort of limitations paraded by West Brom simply cannot cope.
Cannot cope with the intimidation of the specimen that is Drogba, with the speed of thought and body of Florent Malouda, with the relentless drive and excellence of Frank Lampard.
The platform is provided by the solidity of Terry - assured in his blue comfort blanket - and by the muscular industry of Michael Essien and Jon Obi Mikel.
With opposition ambitions so limited, players such as Ashley Cole and Nicolas Anelka provide the eye-pleasing adornments.
Parts of this Chelsea machine might have been removed - but only parts not key to its smooth, relentless running.
Obviously, more demanding tests lie ahead and when injury comes knocking, the quality of the younger players who will replace Joe, Bally, Bella, Riccy and Deco will be tested.
The first-choice XI, though, remains a true powerhouse.
Three for Drogba, two for Malouda, one for Lampard.
The trio of players who encapsulate Chelsea's qualities. Strength, speed, intelligence.
For all its vibrancy, it was almost depressingly predictable.
The no-easy-games brigade should watch this type of game before spouting their mantra of tosh.
There are easy games in the Premier League. Plenty of them. This was one.
Chelsea did not need the helping hand offered to them by Scott Carson.
Earlier in the day, Joe Hart had brought a premature end to the England goalkeeping debate.
He's No 1 in a field of one.
There will be no challenge from Carson, the man whose calamity against Croatia consigned him to semi-obscurity.
He won't even get the chance to join the retirement club.
Yes, Drogba found his footwear's sweet spot. Yes, a biblical shower hardly helped the handling cause.
But Carson was completely culpable, shovelling the strike on to Mikel whose blocked attempt was routinely converted into Chelsea's first goal of the season by Malouda.
Carson railed against his defenders - as goalkeepers, annoyingly, do - but, although the wall might have been undermanned, his was the only error.
At that point, few would have backed against a West Brom collapse and against the sort of technicolour rout that characterised last season's home form.
Roberto di Matteo's team, for a short while, resisted in the most commendable way - and the most effective way.
Bus-parking does not work against Chelsea, the simple ploy of keeping possession can.
Of course, Chelsea - with Essien making a low-key but effective return - were dominant but West Brom, particularly through Chris Brunt and Graham Dorrans, were as imaginative as they were industrious.
Still, Roman Bednar was never going to truly test the theory of Terry's deterioration and, defensively, West Brom look horribly vulnerable.
The basics would be a good starting point for remedial work. Such as building a wall out of human brick rather than human polystyrene.
Indeed, Chelsea's second was a mugging at the hole in the wall.
Again, Drogba's connection was meaty enough but it careered through a barrier that parted in sliding doors fashion.
Against Drogba, Carson has enough on his plate when he is sighted - when he is unsighted, he is helpless.
A Lampard free-kick also threatened to embarrass Carson but some late readjustment spared his blushes.
More pain, though, from set-pieces against a far from robust rearguard was always going to be inevitable.
So it proved when Terry's header from a corner was bundled off the line by Youssouf Mulumbu - but only into a knot of legs from which Drogba extricated himself to set his bid for this season's top-scoring accolade well and truly in motion.
Lampard, remember, caused that lip to quiver. He might challenge Drogba this season and opened his account with a routine finish from a routine Cole pass.
By now, West Brom had disintegrated and after Drogba's strike had taken a significant deflection off Gabriel Tamas, Malouda wrapped up his own casually brilliant display by giving Anelka's moment of unselfishness the finish it deserved.
And for those who keep tables at this time of the year, Chelsea went top of the league, pushing Blackpool aside.
See, not only prolific, quick and strong... ruthless and unromantic as well.
Same old Chelsea.

* JT: John Terry; Joe: Joe Cole; Bally: Michael Ballack; Bella: Juliano Belletti; Riccy: Ricardo Carvalho; Deco: er, Deco.

CHELSEA: Cech 6 - Ferreira 6 (sub 60: Ivanovic 6), Terry 6, Alex 6, Cole 7 - Essien 7, Mikel 6, Lampard 6 (sub 64: Benayoun 6)- Anelka 7, Malouda 8 - Drogba 9 (sub 69: Kalou 6).
SUBS NOT USED: Zhirkov, Sturridge, Van Aanholt, Hilario (gk).
WEST BROM: Carson 5 - Jara 5, Tamas 5, Ibanez 4, Cech 5 - Morrison 6, Mulumbu 6, Brunt 6, Thomas 5 (sub 84: Barnes 6) - Dorrans 6 (sub 66: Cox 6) - Bednar 6 (sub 66: Miller 6).
SUBS NOT USED: Olsson, Reid, Shorey, Myhill (gk) REF: M Clattenburg

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Express:

DIDIER DROGBA LEADS A GOAL DELUGE

CHELSEA 6 ,WEST BROM 0

RAMPANT Chelsea and hat-trick hero Didier Drogba started the new season exactly as they finished the old one – on top of the league.
They robbed fairytale Blackpool of that privilege last night with a demolition job on a West Brom side that simply could not handle the champions’ clinical finishing.
In their last six home Premier League games Chelsea have notched 33 goals and conceded just two.
And the truth is Chelsea went about their deadly business last night without really setting the place alight. But it was far too good for the Premier League new boys.
Poor Roberto Di Matteo. The Chelsea old boy, who now manages the Baggies, could not have had a worse return to Stamford Bridge.
It took little more than five minutes for Chelsea to demonstrate the difference between the top of the Premier League and the Championship that West Brom have just left.
They must have known how deadly Didier Drogba can be with free-kicks on the edge of the box but keeper Scott Carson couldn’t cope with his fierce strike.
The ball bounced out of Carson’s hands, John Obi Mikel got atouch and Florent Malouda was left with a gaping net to poke home Chelsea’s first of the season.
Malouda continued to be Chelsea’s main threat, scraping the post once, hitting it a second time and then heading over after Carson once again failed to hold a free-kick, this time from Frank Lampard.
It should already have been as good as over before Drogba got No 2 with a trademark free-kick in the final seconds of the first-half. But while Nicolas Anelka kept choosing to hit the ball backwards instead of forwards Albion always had a chance.
Chelsea had hardly cut them to ribbons. Both goals came from set pieces – and that’s precisely where Chelsea’s third came from 10 minutes into the second half.
Malouda floated over a tantalising corner that John Terry flicked on. It was cleared off the line by Mulumbu, but Drogba was lurking and lashed the ball into the net tp open th floodgates.
A fourth followed soon afterwards and, surprisingly, it was Chelsea’s first from open play.
Again it was Malouda who set up Frank Lampard and Chelsea’s talisman started making amends for his miserable World Cup summer with a cracker just inside the post.
Drogba will claim the fifth – and his hat-trick – which came on 66 minutes although the ball took a wicked deflection off Gabriel Tamas on its way into the net.
And it was fitting that the marvellous Malouda completed the rout at the death.
Di Matteo probably had his coat on already to make a quick exit.

MAN of the MATCH: Didier Drigba – It could have been Malouda but you can’t argue with Drogba’s glut of goals.

CHELSEA: Cech; Ferreira (Ivanovich 59th), Alex, Terry, Cole; Essien, Mikel, Lampard (Benayoun 64th); Anelka5, Drogba (Kalou 69th), Malouda.

WEST BROM: Carson; Jara, Tamas, Ibanez, Cech; Mulumba, Brunt; Morrison, Dorrans (Cox 68th), Thomas (Barnes 84th); Bednar (Miller 67th).
Ref: M Clattenburg Att: 41,589

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Star:

CHELSEA'S SIX GOALS SAY THEY WON'T GIVE UP TILE WITHOUT A FIGHT
By Tony Stenson

Chelsea 6 West Brom 0

DIDER DROGBA sent a chilling message that Chelsea won’t give up their title lightly.
He grabbed a hat-trick in a six-goal sizzler to start the new season exactly where they left the last one – on top of the league.
They robbed fairytale Blackpool of that privilege last night with the cruel demolition of a West Brom side that simply caved-in to the sort of clinical finishing they just weren’t prepared for.
Now Manchester United must pick up the baton against Newcastle tomorrow night.
The gauntlet has been thrown down by Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti.
And it left former Chelsea hero Roberto di Matteo clapping his hands both in anger and delight.
The Stamford Bridge old-boy would surely have preferred to have waited a little longer for his Stamford Bridge
return. Especially one like this!
The 100-plus Chelsea appearances he made with such distinction counted for nothing yesterday against a Chelsea side smarting from four consecutive pre-season friendly defeats.
It took little more than five minutes to hammer home the difference between the Premier League and the Championship.
They must have known how deadly Drogba can be with free-kicks on the edge of the box – but somehow it all escaped them.
The Ivory Coast hitman struck the dead ball in customary fashion right through the wall that was supposed to stop him.
Scott Carson couldn’t cope with the fierce strike and with John Obi Mikel getting in his way as he tried to retrieve the rebound, Florent Malouda was left with a gaping net to poke home Chelsea’s first of the season.
Not the sort of welcome back Di Matteo had been hoping for!
The game should have been over by half-time long before Drogba got the second with a trademark free-kick.
Chelsea had hardly cut the Baggies to ribbons – both goals coming from set-pieces.
Which is precisely where Chelsea’s third came from just ten minutes into the second half.
Poor Albion had been putting their backs into a comeback before Malouda struck again. This time he floated over a
corner that John Terry got his head to.
It was cleared off the line by Mulkumba, but Drogba was lurking and lashed it into the net.
A fourth followed soon after and believe it or not, it was Chelsea’s first from open play.
Needless to say Malouda set up Lampard and Chelsea’s talisman started making amends for his miserable summer
with a cracker just inside the post.
Drogba will probably claim the fifth – his hat-trick – on 66 minutes, but truth be told it took a cruel deflection off
Gabriel Tamas.
And marvellous Malouda completed the rout at the death.
Di Matteo probably couldn’t wait to get out of the place.
Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich has said he wants to cut down his win bonuses but if that was the message,
then it didn’t get through to the players.
Despite the scoreline Chelsea boss Ancelotti said: “It was nothing special. We just did our job. We can get better.
“If Roman has told the players he wants to cut bonuses then I do not know of it. But I did not see a side worried about bonuses.”

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