Match Report: Chelsea 6 – QPR 1
We romped past Queens Park Rangers at Stamford Bridge with a 6-1 win including a Torres hat trick
Roberto Di Matteo made six changes to the side that triumphed over Barcelona at Camp Nou with Torres coming into the side in place of Didier Drogba.
Paulo Ferreira and Jose Bosingwa replaced Gary Cahill and Branislav Ivanovic at the back, while Michael Essien, Salomon Kalou and Daniel Sturridge all returning to the starting eleven in place of Ramires, Raul Meireles and John Obi Mikel.
We began the match the brighter of the two teams with Daniel Sturridge putting us ahead with just 46 seconds on the clock.
After receiving a cut back from Ashley Cole Sturridge’s pass was deflected back to him off Anton Ferdinand on the edge of the area and he let fly with a superb strike on his right foot that beat Paddy Kenny high at his near post.
We continued to press on with a penalty appeal turned down by referee Howard Webb after Jose Bosingwa had a cross blocked by the arm of QPR defender Clint Hill.
We then went close to making it two after 11 minutes when Juan Mata’s out swinging cross was headed goal wards by Essien only to be headed off the line before a scissor-kicked effort from John Terry was gathered in by Paddy Kenny. Moments later and a sublime chipped effort by Frank Lampard forced Kenny to tip the ball over the bar.
Shortly after the second goal came from Mata’s corner after John Terry stole a march on his marker nodding home from just inside the six-yard box.
QPR were looking totally unable to contain us and Torres made it three, latching on to Kalou’s through ball before rounding Kenny, Barcelona esk and slotting home.
It went from bad to worse for the Hoops in the 28th minute as Nedum Onouha attempted to nod the ball back to his keeper from point-blank range but Paddy Kenny could only parry leaving Fernando Torres the simple task of firing in.
We went close to making it five moments later when Mata combined inside the area to put Lampard one-on-one, but he just failed to get to the ball before the onrushing Kenny.
We played out the first half with ease, Torres going close to his third just before the break and a shell-shocked Hoops side failing even once to test Petr Cech.
The second half began much in the same way that the first finished.
The first chance came in the 50th minute when Mata was put through on goal with an excellent slide rule pass by Frank Lampard but this time his shot was straight at Kenny.
QPR’s best chance came in the 54th minute when Jamie Mackie forced Cech into a fantastic save tipping wide his effort from 25 yards out.
Torres didn’t have to wait long to seal his hat-trick in the 64th minute. He was put through by yet another inch-perfect Mata ball before cutting back onto his right foot and finishing into the far corner of Kenny’s goal.
We made it six in the 79th minute, when substitute Malouda tapped home from just outside the six-yard box after the QPR backline were pulled apart by a driving Ramires run and deflected cut-back.
With the game nearing the end our defence slipped up trying to play a ball out from the back which let in Onuoha down the right to dink a cross into the path of Cisse who shot past Cech for a consolation goal.
The game petered out into little more than a training exercise for us. We kept the ball with ease to continue our fantastic run of form under Di Matteo with his 11th win in 16 games as boss.
In the meantime QPR continue their miserable record away from home which has seen them pick up a division-low 11 points on their travels all season and they now face a real battle to beat the drop this term.
The result boosted our hopes of a top four finish with a mid-week clash at home against Newcastle to come on Wednesday.
Gill Reeves – CSG disabled rep.
Chelsea
• 01 Cech
• 03 Cole
• 17 Bosingwa (Hutchinson – 81′ )
• 19 Ferreira
• 26 Terry
• 05 Essien
• 08 Lampard
• 09 Torres
• 10 Mata (Malouda – 67′ )
• 21 Kalou (Ramires – 73′ )
• 23 Sturridge
Substitutes
• 22 Turnbull
• 27 Hutchinson
• 06 Romeu
• 07 Ramires
• 15 Malouda
• 16 Meireles
• 11 Drogba
Queens Park Rangers
• 01 Kenny
• 03 Hill
• 34 Taiwo
• 35 Ferdinand
• 42 Onuoha
• 04 Derry
• 14 Buzsaky (Traore – 66′ )
• 17 Barton – Booked
• 12 Mackie
• 23 Cisse
• 52 Zamora (Wright-Phillips – 78′ )
Substitutes
• 24 Cerny
• 06 Gabbidon
• 13 Traore
• 18 Young
• 32 Wright-Phillips
• 09 Campbell
• 21 Smith
Ref: H Webb
Att: 41,675