Premier League: Wigan v Chelsea full time report
Wigan 0 Chelsea 6
Two goals each from Nicolas Anelka and Salomon Kalou helped Chelsea secure three points in a 6-0 win over Wigan.
Anelka, the player who was given an 18-match ban by the French Football Federation, scored twice in four second-half minutes to send the Premier League champions to the top of the table. Kalou also scored twice after coming off from the bench in the second half.
Florent Malouda gave Chelsea the lead in the first half as he got onto the end of Frank Lampard’s parried shot by Wigan goalkeeper Chris Kirkland. It was Chelsea’s first real meaningful attack, and Ashley Cole started the move down the left-hand side.
Maynor Figueroa forced Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech into a decent save on 10 minutes, as Wigan began the game brightly and showed no signs of suffering from their 4-0 home defeat to Blackpool last weekend.
Chelsea’s first effort came on 15 minutes, but the shot from Michael Essien from a long way out went sailing over the bar.
Wigan’s top scorer last season Hugo Rodallega had a free kick that was hit straight at Cech from a long distance, and then on 27 minutes after a neat passage of play had a shot which he fired on target, which didn’t cause any problems for Cech.
As expected, Chelsea came out the better side in the second half and asserted their authority.
Anelka doubled Chelsea’s lead a couple of minutes after the half time interval. John Obi Mikel picked the Frenchman out with a beautiful cross-field pass, and he finished brilliantly, leaving Kirkland stranded.
Anelka grabbed his second of the game four minutes later. Although he was in an offside position, he headed in from virtually on the goal line after Didier Drogba missed a great opportunity to score himself.
Wigan thought they had scored their first goal of the season after Mauro Boselli tucked the ball away, but his effort was ruled out for offside.
Chelsea began to knock the ball around better than they did in the first half.
Drogba continued to be nuisance for the Wigan defence, shooting wide on 70 minutes.
The Ivorian striker set-up Kalou after ghosting past the Wigan defence on the half-way line for Chelsea’s fourth goal of the game. Drogba could have scored himself after doing all the hard work, but showed why he is a valuable asset to Chelsea by unselfishly squaring the pass.
Kalou scored his second of the game approaching the 90th minute, heading in a Drogba cross after Kirkland came out and was in no man’s land.
Yossi Benayoun scored his first Chelsea goal as Paulo Ferreira picked him out from his ball into the box to make it six of the best once again.
Wigan fans may well be concerned at the start they have made to their season, failing to score a goal so far this season and being bottom of the league, shipping in 10 goals along the way.
Chelsea meanwhile continue to score for fun, scoring six against West Bromwich Albion and six today.
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