Chelsea 5 Blackburn 0: Frank Lampard Leads Chelsea Romp For Boss

Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti returned to Stamford Bridge to watch his side dismantle Blackburn Rovers and reclaim top spot in the Premier League table.

The Italian had spent time back in Italy earlier in the week visiting his father Guiseppe, who is ill.

Gael Givet's 20th-minute own goal gave the home side a deserved lead and Rovers had goalkeeper Paul Robinson to thank that there were no further goals before the break.

The England international's chances of being included in next summer's World Cup squad were enhanced by saves from Nicolas Anelka, Didier Drogba and John Terry, with the latter the pick of the bunch

But he did not fare so well after the break with Frank Lampard making it 2-0 early on and Michael Essien catching him out with a 30-yarder. Lampard then converted a penalty after Ryan Nelsen had fouled Drogba, who made it 5-0 from a corner with Robinson nowhere.

REACTION:
Ancelotti declared he now intends to be a Liverpool fan for the rest of the weekend.Chelsea will only stay on top of the table if Manchester United do not win at Anfield and, although the Italian was adamant no title race was won in October, he still wanted to be leading from the front.

"The season will be very long and tomorrow will be a fantastic match that I would like to watch," he said. "For one day I can be a fan of Liverpool - but only for one day."

Exactly where he will watch the game remains unclear as he intends to jet back to his father's bedside in his native Italy.

"Tomorrow we have a free day and I will go back to Italy," he said. "I will return on Monday as I think my father will be better. These are difficult days but I think after Monday he will be better and I can stay here quietly and without problems."

Ancelotti also revealed that he rated this performance as the best Chelsea had produced in his reign so far.

"I think so but we played very well in other games," he said. "I don't know what it means to teams other than Chelsea but I liked very much this game. We played very well. It was a pleasure to see this team.

"Chelsea played very well and it is not easy to play against Chelsea when Chelsea put on the pitch a lot of great quality. There was strong personality and intensity in the play. Blackburn did what they could."

Allardyce gave his players both barrels, labelling them as "naive" and their performance "pathetic".

"I wanted us to frustrate Chelsea as best we could and we did that very well in the first half. My talk was to continue it that way. Our defending was looking solid and we were limiting Chelsea to shooting from outside the box," he said.

"But we went pathetically wrong. All the tactics that we set up went out of the window. When their second goal went in we felt we had to open up and attack even more and when you are playing against a side of this quality they will just go and score more goals.

"I'm bitterly disappointed in the players' lack of understanding of the situation they were in. Instead of making themselves more difficult to beat they made themselves easier and that's why we got beat 5-0. They are great players, Chelsea, and they took total advantage of our naivety today.

"At the moment they are not good enough, that's the bottom line. The mental resilience is not there. They can't physically challenge the opposition. They just want to play football but just playing football away from home in the Premier League doesn't get you results. You have to have all the elements that go with it."

HOW IT HAPPENED:
Big Sam reckoned his players threw away 45 minutes of hard work with some recklessly cavalier play after the break but a simpler verdict says that in the first half his keeper played well and in the second he simply didn't. Chelsea could and should have scored in the first minute and chalked up as many chances in the first period as the second. Cole was a revelation with his fancy flicks and Lampard and Drogba excelled in everything they tried. True, Rovers had key personnel missing through illness and injury - David Dunn, Chris Samba and Pascal Chimbonda were the three main ones - and others apparently played despite being below par but Rovers were utterly out-classed from the first kick.

WHAT IT MEANS:
A resounding home victory over a team that had been thrashed by Arsenal on its last visit to London adds up to no great surprise as Chelsea are used to winning in front of their own fans and will continue to do so. It's the away days that will decide whether United can be stopped and there have already been setbacks at Wigan and Aston Villa. As for Rovers, they will continue to roll over on the road - Old Trafford is their next Premier League port of call - and stay up by virtue of their Ewood Park form.

QUOTABLE:
"OK, it would have been very difficult to have won the game, we knew that, but why throw a game plan that's working so well out of the window? That's what I can't understand."
Sam laments his players' desire to try to overturn a 1-0 deficit by scoring goals instead of merely keeping the score down.

CHELSEA 5 (Givet, og, 20, Lampard 48 59 (pen), Essien 52, Drogba 64) BLACKBURN ROVERS 0

PLAYER MARKING:
Chelsea (4-1-2-1): Cech 6; Ivanovic 7, Terry 7, Carvalho 7 (Bruma, 67, 6), Belletti 7 (Ferreira 61); Essien 7; Ballack 7, Lampard 8; J Cole 7 (Sturridge (77); Anelka 7, Drogba 8.
Subs (not used): Hilario, Malouda, Deco. Kalou.

Blackburn Rovers (4-4-1-1): Robinson 7; Jacobsen 6 (Salgado 60, 6), Givet 6, Nelsen 6, Olsson 6; Diouf 6, Andrews 6, Nzonzi 6, Pedersen 6 (Hoilett 69, 5); Emerton 6; Roberts 4 (Kalanic 53, 5).
Subs (not used) Brown, McCarthy, Reid, Jones.

ATTENDANCE: 40,836

NEXT UP:
- Chelsea v Bolton (Home), Carling Cup Wednesday (28/10), 1945 GMT
- Blackburn v Peterborough (Home), Carling Cup Tuesday (27/10), 2000 GMT

MAN OF THE MATCH:
Frank Lampard (Chelsea): It might have been Robinson but the England goalkeeper's impressive first-half form deserted him after the break as Chelsea's shoot-on-sight policy, led by Lampard, bore dividends that might have arrived much, much earlier. The midfielder had gone a while without a goal before netting in the Champions League in midweek when Atletico Madrid were beaten 4-0. Rovers were lucky not to have been thumped by double that score and Lampard's two goals were richly deserved.