Jose Mourinho claimed Chelsea had provided the perfect riposte to the critics who have labelled them boring by blasting five second-half goals past Bolton.
”We are not boring,” Mourinho insisted after a 5-1 win that extended his side’s perfect start to the season to nine matches.
”Sometimes we have boring games, but that’s because of two teams and not just one,” he said.
Saturday’s diplay demonstrated exactly why bookmakers are already paying out on bets that Mourinho’s side will retain the Premiership title.
But Bolton’s manager Sam Allardyce felt things might have been different if referee Rob Styles had sent off Michael Essien for a crude challenge on Tal Ben Haim late in the first half.
The visitors were a goal up at the time and Allardyce said: ”If you are going to win here, you need a bit of luck or a decision to go your way, and we didn’t get that.”
Two goals apiece for Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba and one from Eidur Gudjohnsen secured Chelsea’s win after Bolton had taken a fourth-minute lead through Greek midfielder Stelios Giannakopoulos.
The visitors held out to the break but could not resist after the restart, with Lampard and Drogba putting Chelsea in front before Bolton’s Ricardo Gardner was sent off for deliberate handball.
The win means Chelsea have not lost in the Premiership for a full year — their last defeat having come at Manchester City on October 16 last year.
Second-placed Tottenham, who added to bottom side Everton’s woes with a 2-0 win at White Hart Lane, remain nine points adrift of the leaders.
Manchester United are a point further back after goals from Wayne Rooney, Ruud van Nistelrooy (his 10th of the season) and 18-year-old Giuseppe Rossi earned them a 3-1 win at struggling Sunderland.
With a game in hand on Chelsea, United can still entertain hope of overhauling the leaders and manager Sir Alex Ferguson has been cheered by recent performances.
”The only real disappointment of our season so far was the home defeat to Blackburn because we missed so many chances,” Ferguson said. ”We can’t afford that, so hopefully scoring three goals at Fulham and again at Sunderland will help confidence.”
Third defeat for Arsenal
Arsenal’s title hopes now look to have been extinguished after Arsene Wenger’s injury-hit squad were beaten 2-1 at West Brom.
It was the Gunners’ third defeat of the season and they now trail Chelsea by a massive 14 points.
”At the moment, it does not look likely that we can catch Chelsea. Let’s get our injured players back first, but right now Chelsea are not even a worry for me,” said Wenger.
Arsenal took the lead through young centreback Philippe Senderos, but their former forward Kanu got Albion back on level terms before the break and Darren Carter came off the bench to earn three precious points for his club with a 76th-minute volley.
Liverpool made hard work of overcoming 10-man Blackburn at Anfield, but finally secured the points with a long-range strike from Djibril Cisse that will have helped the unsettled French striker’s case for a regular place in the starting line-up.
Blackburn had to play for nearly an hour with 10 men after Georgian defender Zurab Khizanishvili was judged to have been the last man as he tripped Cisse inches outside the box.
”We feel very hard done by,” Blackburn boss Mark Hughes complained.
Tottenham’s strong early-season form continued as they condemned Everton to their seventh defeat in eight league matches, with the goals — both headers — coming from Egyptian striker Mido and midfielder Jermaine Jenas.
Newcastle’s recent mini-revival ran out of steam when they went down to a 1-0 defeat at Premiership newcomers Wigan, for whom Jason Roberts notched the winner.
Middlesbrough and Portsmouth shared the points at the Riverside, with Nigerian striker Yakubu Aiyegbeni equalising after Gary O’Neil had put Pompey ahead shortly after half-time. — Sapa-AFP