Chelsea 3-1 Birmingham: Chelsea on Cruise Control

And what a cruise it was. The second cruise in five days, if Chelsea keep playing like this, after a dismal winter, we will all be sea-sick including more-so the red half of North London and the red-half of Manchester. Florent Malouda with a crashing volley set Chelsea on their way inside three minutes.

John Terry, the saviour of Senrab, supplied a delicious cross-field ball to a very unmarked Paulo Ferreira (making his 200th appearance for Chelsea).

So unmarked was Paulo, he had time to mis-control the pass, compose himself, before whipping a cross over for Drogba to flick on for Malouda to score high in Foster's net from close-range.

Chelsea's second at The Shed End came when Drogba fed Kalou who took the ball on before firing home with a right-footer that swerved and deceived Foster down by his left-hand post.

It was funny watching two City defenders collide with each other before the ball hit the net.

Ryan Bertrand who finally made his Chelsea debut at left back (after spending years on loan playing 200+ games for other clubs), replacing Ashley Cole was instrumental in Chelsea's thrid goal.

Ryan sent over a lovely cross for Malouda to score his 2nd of the game with a free header that must have had McLeish on the bench punching the ground in frustration for his side's lack of defensive discipline.

Birmingham pulled one back from the penalty spot after Luiz was adjudged to have fouled Derbyshire. The goal was merely a consolation.

Although Cech was rarely troubled he did have a couple of saves to make, but most of the action was at Foster's end and the main troublemaker was Drogba who caused City problems all night.

Torres again was on the bench.....again. He came on with about 20 minutes to go.... and again failed to score.

Are Chelsea, the reigning Champions, back in the title race?

Who knows!!

The way this crazy season is going, ANYTHING can happen!


COME ON CHELSEA


Chelsea: Cech, Ferreira, Luiz, Terry (c), Cole (Bertrand 56), Essien, Mikel, Lampard, Kalou (Torres 67), Drogba, Malouda (Anelka 67)

Goals: Malouda 2, 61, Kalou 25

 
Birmingham City: Foster, Carr (c), Johnson, Ridgewell, Parnaby (Davies 79), Larsson, Gardner, Ferguson, Fahey, Hleb (Bentley 70), Jerome (Derbyshire 70)

Goal: Larsson 75 pen
Booked: Parnaby 49