Chelsea have look of champions as Wolves crushed

Chelsea tightened their grip at the top of the Premier League with a 4-0 thrashing of beleaguered Wolves on Saturday.

The west Londoners produced a display of consummate authority at a soggy Stamford Bridge, capped by goals from Florent Malouda, two from Michael Essien and a welcome fourth from Joe Cole, his first since October 2008.

Statistics can never be the sole measure of a side’s calibre, but Chelsea’s numbers make for impressive reading.

This victory was their 12th in succession on home soil, a club record, and also ensured it is now a calendar year since they tasted defeat at Stamford Bridge in any competition.

It is reaching the point when Carlo Ancelotti can almost take maximum points for granted in this corner of the English capital, a rare luxury in the self-styled most competitive league in the world, and the fact that this latest triumph was achieved without a stack of star names only reaffirms the theory that the Italian has the Premier League’s strongest squad.

Didier Drogba, Michael Ballack and Deco should all be available for next weekend’s trip to Arsenal, but they were never likely to be needed on Saturday.

Like all newly-promoted sides, Wolves travelled here in hope more than expectation and that was exposed as forlorn as Chelsea scored twice in the first 15 minutes.

Both owed as much to limp defending as razor-sharp attacking. The visitors’ failure to close down Malouda’s run in the fifth minute was little short of negligent, the French international taking full advantage of Stamford Bridge’s wide open spaces to swagger forward and plant a rising drive into the top corner from just outside the penalty area.

Ten minutes later, they compounded that error. First, Wayne Hennessey needlessly tipped behind Salomon Kalou’s shot, which was arrowing well wide; then, from the resultant corner, Essien was unmarked as he headed in at the near post.

McCarthy duly tinkered with his formation, switching from a 3-5-2 to a more conventional 4-4-2, but it did nothing to stem the blue tide and it was three in the 23rd minute.

Joe Cole and Kalou had all the time they could desire to tee up Essien, whose scuffed shot somehow bobbled through Hennessey’s grasp.

Wolves would doubtless have preferred to pack up and retreat to the West Midlands rather than re-emerge for the second half but Chelsea were in an unforgiving mood.

The hosts continued to pile forward in search of goals and, in the 56th minute, they were given their reward.

After Nicolas Anelka had streaked down the left and centred for Kalou, the Ivorian directed a neat lay-off into the path of Joe Cole, whose 20-yard drive zipped through the hapless Hennessey to provide the cue for some exuberant celebrations.

With the game long since won, Ancelotti was able to ease off the accelerator as the seconds ticked away. Anelka was replaced so Gael Kakuta, the French teenager whose signing from Lens provoked Chelsea’s hotly-disputed 12-month transfer ban from FIFA, could make his first senior appearance.

The 18-year-old showed some neat touches in his cameo, and might have scored when he broke through on the right only to slam his shot into the side-netting.

Essien came agonisingly close to notching a hat-trick when his long-range shot was parried onto the top of the crossbar by Hennessey, but it hardly mattered. This was Chelsea’s day and, on this evidence, it could well be their season.