Chelsea 2 - 0 Wolverhampton

Malouda has now scored seven league in a blistering start to the season


Premier League pacesetters Chelsea stretched their lead to five points with a hard-fought victory over Wolves.

The visitors created several chances in an open game with David Edwards and Kevin Doyle both going close.

But Chelsea's attacking quality told and Florent Malouda calmly sidefooted them ahead from Yuri Zhirkov's pass.

The champions wasted a number of chances but sealed the win late on when substitute Salomon Kalou slid the ball home after a sweet move.

Kalou's late clinching second, after a glorious piece of interplay involving Michael Essien and Didier Drogba, was probably deserved but Mick McCarthy's men played a full part in an entertaining game.

And although they were out-chanced, they could point to several good opportunities and were unlucky not to score the first away league goal at Stamford Bridge since March.


That said, the Blues, who are now eight points clear of both Manchester United and Arsenal and five ahead of Manchester City, played with supreme confidence and total fluency and could and should have added to their tally.

Wolves made a promising start, winning three corners and they looked eager not to sit back and allow Chelsea to dominate possession.

The pace of Matthew Jarvis posed more than a few problems down the right flank in the first 30 minutes and Mick McCarthy's men were happy to commit men forward despite their solid 4-5-1 line-up.

David Edwards failed to get a meaty connection on one teasing Jarvis cross and headed tamely at Petr Cech. And both Jelle Van Damme and Doyle should have done better with headed chances from Jarvis centres.

But after a slow first 10 minutes, Chelsea started playing with supreme confidence in attack and their willingness to let full-backs Ashley Cole and Jose Bosingwa bomb forward led to a raft of chances.

One such raid saw Bosingwa - making his first start in 13 months after a knee injury - race into the box but his sweet strike was brilliantly diverted wide of the post by Marcus Hahnemann.

Bosingwa and Cole were virtually playing as wingers.

And although the attacking approach did leave them exposed on a couple of occasions it led to the opening goal when the pace and movement of Drogba, Nicolas Anelka, the impressive Zhirkov and Malouda finally proved too much for the Black Country side.

Anelka showed speed of mind and speed of foot to work the ball into Zhirkov and the Russian's astute pull-back was easily turned in by the goal-hungry Malouda

But home fans' hopes of another goal-fest following the Frenchman's seventh goal in the league in nine games this season were not met.

Wolves replied with a couple of Nenad Milijas shots as they started to commit more men forward which inevitably led to Chelsea carving out chances on the break.

Cole failed to make the most of a two-on-one break from a Wolves set-piece and a glorious pass from Zhirkov teed up the rampaging Bosingwa but Hahnemann saved with his feet at the front post.

Wolves introduced Stephen Hunt for his Premier League debut after the interval and the winger - who was booed by Blues fans throughout for his involvement in Petr Cech's terrible injury in 2006 - almost scored with a header within moments of coming on but his header was cleared off the line by Michael Essien.

Quick feet and a fine low shot from Kevin Doyle then forced Cech into action at his near post and Doyle also had a close-range header saved by the Chelsea keeper.

At the other end Drogba wasted a glorious one-on-one opening as Hahnemann flew out of area to tackle the Ivorian and Essien curled an 18-yard strike over the bar.

But Chelsea finally sealed their fifth home win in five games when Kalou slotted home