Middlesbrough 0-5 Chelsea

Chelsea threw down the gauntlet to their title rivals by cruising to a 5-0 win at Middlesbrough.
Despite missing several key players due to injury, the Blues totally outclassed their hosts.

Salomon Kalou put them in front after just 14 minutes, slotting home after the ball fell kindly to him.

After the break, Chelsea eased to victory, sent on their way by a 35-yard screamer from Juliano Belletti.Kalou got his second to make it 3-0 before Frank Lampard headed in the fourth.

Florent Malouda rounded off the scoring, tapping in the rebound from Boro keeper Ross Turnbull.

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Luiz Felipe Scolari gained an insight into just how good his injury-hit squad are after seeing them rip Middlesbrough apart.

Despite missing the likes of Petr Cech, Didier Drogba and Ashley and Joe Cole, the Blues were in rampant form at the Riverside Stadium to condemn Boro to the heaviest defeat of Gareth Southgate's reign.

Salomon Kalou fired the visitors ahead with 14 minutes gone, and although Chelsea took the match by the scruff of the neck, they had to wait until six minutes after the break for Juliano Belletti to increase their lead with a stunning 35-yard strike.

Kalou made sure of the points with a deflected 53rd-minute third, and Frank Lampard and Florent Malouda completed the rout on a day when Nicolas Anelka had a goal disallowed, hit the post and was denied by keeper Ross Turnbull.

The visitors arrived on Teesside having not lost a league fixture in 10 months, but with concerns their injury problems might make an extension of that record difficult.

Scolari could have been forgiven for bemoaning his luck as he was forced to name a side shorn of players worth in excess of £100m, with Cech, Joe and Ashley Cole, Ricardo Carvalho, Michael Ballack, Michael Essien and Drogba all unavailable to him.

utterly dominant

However he was still able to call upon a formidable squad and, despite their lack of big names, the visitors were utterly dominant before the break playing a brand of expansive, penetrative football that left Boro gasping for air.

The only concern for Scolari will have been that as they went in at the break, they were only a goal to the good, Kalou pouncing on a loose ball to fire past Turnbull after Andrew Taylor had blocked the impressive Belletti's 14th-minute shot.

But for the slightest of touches from right-back Jonathan Grounds, Lampard would have doubled the lead from Malouda's cross 10 minutes later.

The Frenchman might have done better when he found himself in on goal with 31 minutes gone, only to fire wide of Turnbull's far post with Boro hanging on for dear life.

Southgate's side did not muster a single credible attempt on goal in the opening 45 minutes with Cech's deputy Carlo Cudicini a virtual spectator.

Their fortunes were summed up seconds before Malouda's miss when Adam Johnson picked out Stewart Downing with a set-play from a corner, only to see the England international thrash at fresh air.

Indeed, the most pressure returning England skipper John Terry found himself under was in injury-time when central defensive partner Alex left him stretching to clear his lines.

stern rebuke

That earned the apologetic Brazilian a stern rebuke from his captain, who otherwise had few problems handling Egypt striker Mido.

Southgate may have been happy to get his players back into the dressing room with the scoreline at only 1-0, but the match was over within eight minutes of the restart.

Turnbull at least stood up to the challenge when, within four minutes of the restart, Malouda waltzed past Grounds and, having opted not to hand Anelka a tap-in, was denied by the keeper.

But the youngster could do nothing two minutes later to keep Belletti's stinging 35-yard piledriver out of his top corner as Chelsea flexed their muscles once again.

The third goal arrived with 37 minutes still to play when Kalou claimed his second with the help of a wicked deflection off David Wheater, although Boro's misery was far from complete.

Kalou and Anelka combined down the right with 63 minutes gone for the midfielder to send in an inviting cross for Lampard, whose diving header gave Turnbull no chance.

The Boro keeper's afternoon took a further turn for the worse with 66 minutes gone when he allowed Anelka's shot to squirm from his grasp, with the post serving a fifth up on a plate for the vigilant Malouda.

Anelka saw a sixth goal rightly ruled out for offside and was then denied by a fine save from Turnbull with 14 minutes remaining, although the job had been completed long before.

(by.BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE, http://www.premierleague.com/page