By Sam Lyon
**Chelsea returned to Premier League action in emphatic fashion as they routed Sunderland to once again underline their title credentials.**Nicolas Anelka grabbed two, the first one-on-one, the second a tap-in, while Florent Malouda’s stinger made it 2-0.
A Frank Lampard volley followed Ashley Cole’s stunning control and finish, before Michael Ballack headed a fifth.
Bolo Zenden and Darren Bent replied for the visitors, but Lampard’s header rounded off a stunning home victory.
And it was as convincing a win as the scoreline suggests, with any questions about how Chelsea would cope without Africa Cup of Nations players Didier Drogba, John Obi Mikel, Michael Essien and Salomon Kalou answered forcefully.
Both side’s last league action was back on 28 December following the spate of postponements due to the weather - and Black Cats boss Steve Bruce chose to take his team on a warm-weather break in the Algarve in the mean time in a bid to inspire his side to a first win in eight games.
It didn’t work. Chelsea, coming into the match off the back of seven dropped points in their last five games, were irresistable, Sunderland were woeful.
Interestingly, Bruce, when in charge of Huddersfield in 2000, had a £750,000 bid for John Terry accepted by Chelsea, only for the player to turn down the move.
How he must have wished he had had the England captain at the heart of his defence at Stamford Bridge. Instead, Albanian midfielder Lorik Cana, deputising at the back with the likes of Nyron Nosworthy and Anton Ferdinand injured, produced a truly disastrous performance.
Time and again he was caught out - and with Chelsea in no mood to forgive his ineptitude, Sunderland’s modus ope***** quickly went from early optimism to damage limitation.
Anelka, back to the lead in the line in a threatening 4-3-3 formation after a hamstring injury, kick-started matters, collecting Ballack’s sublime through ball, rounding the keeper and slotting home, before Malouda ran unchallenged from the middle of the park to slot into the corner from 18 yards.
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“We’re just a Juggernaut at the moment and who said we’ll miss our African players Well we aint”
DrogbaTheMeanMachine
Ashley Cole’s moment of brilliance followed. The left-back, on the sprint, brought Terry’s ball over the top down first time, stepped inside Cana, and then dinked past keeper Marton Fulop with the outside of his boot.
It was an exquisite strike, remniscent of Cole’s former team-mate at Arsenal Dennis Bergkamp, and it typified the hosts’ swelling confidence.
There was little respite for the Black Cats. Just 34 minutes were on the clock when Chelsea racked up their fourth - Lampard stretching to volley home Ashley Cole’s cross - and Ballack, Joe Cole and Anelka again all failed to finish off flowing moves as Chelsea moved the ball about at will.
Sunderland’s only crumb of comfort was the odd threat they posed in attack. Bent had a snap-shot easily saved by Petr Cech, while Daryl Murphy was bravely denied by the keeper from eight yards out after good work by Kenwyne Jones.
But, in truth, only Chelsea’s occasional tendency to over-play and Sunderland keeper Fulop prevented this from being a cricket score.
The Hungarian keeper produced a stunning save to deny Anelka at the start of the half, tipping the Frenchman’s long-ranger onto the bar and post, but he could do nothing about Chelsea’s fifth, Ballack waltzing into the area completely unmarked to head home Joe Cole’s pin-point cross.
Completely against the run of play, Sunderland briefly hit back, Zenden slapping the ball into the corner on his old stomping ground from Jones’s knock-down.
The renaissance lasted all of nine minutes, though, Anelka making the most of a Fulop flap at Yuri Zhirkov’s cross to tap into an empty net.
There was still 25 minutes remaining at that point, and Sunderland must have feared the worst, but Fulop denied Anelka a hat-trick from six yards out and Joe Cole hit the post with a header to give the away goal some respite.
Not for long, though. Lampard brought up Chelsea’s seventh with a controlled header from Anelka’s bullet cross, while Bent rounded off the goal frenzy at the other end with close-range finish in stoppage time.
It was a whirlwind finish to a match filled with goalmouth action - a suitable way for Chelsea to mark their 350th Premier League win, a feat only Manchester United and Arsenal have previously achieved.