Didier Drogba and Chelsea put West Brom to the sword

When you have scored 103 goals and set a scoring record in your last season, it is generosity beyond the call of duty for your first opponents of this term to be doling out gifts. Scott Carson continued the fine traditions of post-modern England goalkeepers by panicking and spilling with all the grace of a Laurel and Hardy sketch. The season was only five minutes old and Chelsea were back in the old routine. The goal machine clicked back into gear.

Carlo Ancelotti wants his team to target a quadruple, and it spoke volumes for their capacity to focus that they cruised to a high-scoring victory and still had two or three gears in reserve. They were 3-0 up inside an hour without breaking sweat. Five up with more than 20 minutes to go. Didier Drogba helped himself to a hat-trick and two of the regular scorers, Frank Lampard and Florent Malouda, slipped back into the groove.

Ancelotti suggested it was less of a sign to the rest of the league than it was to the Chelsea squad themselves. "We had a difficult pre-season so it was a message to us. We did our job. Nothing special," noted the Italian master of understatement, apparently oblivious to the fact it is not every season that a team wins 6-0 on day one.

World Cup? What World Cup? For the likes of Drogba, Lampard and Malouda, all of whom endured grim disappointment of one kind or another in South Africa, the bad memories are blotted out by a return to winning ways, to cheerful supporters, to a much-loved coach and a style that they love and that loves them.

For Roberto Di Matteo, returning to his old stamping ground, it was frustrating to make his debut as a Premier League manager by watching his team do themselves no favours with slack defending. It took a mere five minutes for Chelsea to carry on where they left off, with a hell of a nose for sniffing out a goal. After Malouda had been tripped on the cusp of the area, Drogba sized up the free-kick in his white and luminous orange boots. He floated his set-piece ball over the wall and straight enough at the goalkeeper, but Carson looked shell- shocked as he parried meekly into the path of Mikel John Obi. A dinked pass invited Malouda to snaffle the season's opener for his club.

Six minutes before the break, Carson was again under the cosh from a free kick. This time, Lampard crashed the ball straight through the wall, he threw his hands in front of his face to block, and Malouda was first to the rebound. He headed over. Just before half-time, Drogba hovered over another dead ball, and the Chelsea fans in the Shed End started chanting "dodgy keeper".

There was not a huge amount Carson could do, however, as the wall crumbled. The shot slithered through a gap. Drogba celebrated.

West Brom could hardly have spent half-time talking about anything other than damage limitation. But Chelsea were able to puncture them again 10 minutes into the second half. Another set-piece – this time a corner – unnerved the West Brom rearguard. Although John Terry's glancing header was shuffled off the line by Youssouf Mulumbu, Anelka helped to scramble the ball to Drogba, who finished like all hungry strikers should. "The first three goals were bad," said Di Matteo. "We made mistakes at set pieces and we'll have to learn very quickly and improve very quickly. It was too easy."

Lampard gave Chelsea their first goal from open play. Anelka and Ashley Cole combined down the left to tee him up, and he slotted in neatly at the near post.

Five minutes later Drogba's arms were aloft to acclaim a hat-trick. A crashing drive ricocheted off Gabriel Tamas's head and Carson was plucking the ball out of his net once more. Malouda added a sixth with a crisp finish off the post in the last minute.

And with that flourish Chelsea won on the opening day for the ninth time in succession. Ominous? Naturally. Having finished 2009-10 with an 8-0 victory, Chelsea have scored 14 in two games.

As for West Brom, they have been involved in promotion or relegation in seven of the past nine seasons. You wouldn't bet on another change of scenery come May. Although, to give it some perspective, everyone in the Premier League knows Chelsea are capable of inflicting this damage routinely.

West Brom could hardly have endured a more testing opening game back among the big boys. The fixture computer has not been generous, throwing up visits to Stamford Bridge, Anfield, the Emirates and Old Trafford, as well as a home game against top-four newcomers Tottenham, in their first eight outings.

"It doesn't get tougher than that," said Di Matteo. "It would be tough for any club, never mind a newly promoted team like us. We have a home game next Saturday and hopefully we can bounce back and get our first points. Tomorrow is another day."