 |
|
England: Chelsea enjoy 4-0 romp over West Brom [Thu Aug 25th, 2005]
London (Reuters) - Champions Chelsea hit top gear with a 4-0 thrashing of West Bromwich Albion to maintain their 100 percent start to the Premier League season.
Coach Jose Mourinho made six changes from the side that beat Arsenal and they started slowly, but once Frank Lampard slotted his 50th goal for the club, they raced away to a victory that puts them top with nine points.
Last year's runners-up Arsenal made amends for their 1-0 defeat against Chelsea, coming from behind to trounce Fulham 4-1 with two goals from Thierry Henry and an unlikely brace from defender Pascal Cygan.
Fulham had taken a surprise lead through Claus Jensen shortly after Arsenal defender Lauren missed from the penalty spot, following a foul on Henry.
Tottenham Hotspur maintained their strong start to the season, grinding out a 0-0 draw at Blackburn Rovers, who played the last 15 minutes with 10 men after Lucas Neill was sent off.
Martin Jol's side, who are second to Chelsea with seven points, are still to concede a goal this season. The two sides meet at White Hart Lane on Saturday.
Newcastle United's problems mounted with goals from El-Hadji Diouf and Stelios Giannakopoulos giving Bolton Wanderers a deserved 2-0 home win at the Reebok Stadium.
Newcastle, who want to sign Real Madrid's Michael Owen, have failed to score so far this season, picking up just one point.
Mourinho handed a first start to big money signings Michael Essien and Shaun Wright-Phillips, while England midfielder Joe Cole returned after not making the squad against Arsenal.
Despite the riches pitched against them, it was West Brom who made the early running while Chelsea struggled to gel.
DEFENSIVE MISTAKE
However Lampard, who has just celebrated the birth of his daughter Luna, punished a defensive mistake by Thomas Gaardsoe on 23 minutes, firing home after a clever dummy from Essien.
Cole made it 2-0 after being teed up by Wright-Phillips and Didier Drogba's close-range effort, and Lampard's second put Chelsea in cruise control long before the end.
"I have a lot of players and you have to use the players in a way where you don't lose the balance," said Mourinho, who had the luxury of using Hernan Crespo, Damien Duff and Arjen Robben as second-half substitutes.
"If you have at home one Bentley and one Aston Martin and you go to work every day in the Bentley you're not very clever, you have to use the Aston Martin."
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger paid tribute to new skipper Henry after last season's top scorer moved to within one goal of Ian Wright's club record of 185.
"When he's on his game like he was tonight, he's fantastic," said Wenger, who was pleased with the way his players responded to losing at Stamford Bridge.
"Sometimes when you have a new responsibility like he has you lose a bit of your main strength, but we need him focussed like he was tonight. We need belief and we showed belief tonight."
Arsenal are in fourth place with six points from their opening three matches, one behind Manchester City, who won at Sunderland.
News headlines from around the world.