Chelsea 7-2 Sunderland | As Good As it Gets . . .

Heard of the phrase ‘exceedingly exceeded the expectations’?

The expectation was something like a 2-0 win. A 4-0 would have been ‘exceeding the expectations’. Who’d have guessed that we’d score seven?

This was the first Premier League match since the Africans left. And we were supposed to be struggling in the absence of Drogba and Essien. But we chose this day to almost get Chelsea’s best-ever top flight victory.

Sunderland were depleted but let’s not take anything away from Chelsea. It was simply a scintillating performance that sent out a clear message that we’re back in form.

To be honest, when we were leading 2-0, I was reminded of the Everton match. Chelsea playing great football, completely outplaying the opponent, scoring a couple of goals inside 20 mins and looking to sweep the opposition away with a huge score.

In the Everton match, we got complacent and unlucky which resulted in a very unfair 3-3 score at the end.

In this match, there was nothing outside the script like that. At no point in the match were we ready to take the foot off the gas. Beautiful, professional and ruthless...champions’ stuff.

Every now and then you have such Chelsea matches where it’s very hard to name the MOTM. Even in this match, you can come up with at least four players who fully deserved to be MOTM.

Anelka scored a brace and more importantly scored the first goal of the match. That was a brilliant finish by Anelka set up by a beautiful touch by Ze German.

All through the match, Anelka appeared to be very sharp and hungry. Didn’t look like he was playing after a month’s gap.

Then there was Ashley Cole, who was the prime architect of our 4-0 lead by half time. And that goal by Ashley Cole!

Many have compared it already with the famous World Cup goal by Dennis Bergkamp. It looks pretty similar but Bergkamp did it with more grace and ease.

But come on, Bergkamp is a legendary footballer and we are talking about one of his best goals.

Now, to compare an Ashley Cole goal with that goal says a lot about the quality of the goal. With Essien and Mikel not being there, I was thinking that the fullbacks might play a less attacking role but Ashley Cole was all over the left hand side yesterday.

Malouda was brilliant too. After the poorly-translated and mis-quoted interview in a French magazine, to start for Chelsea and produce such a performance must shut the stupid journos. His goal was also such a great goal.

There were too many great goals in one match! I think Malouda’s goal must qualify as a nominee for the Chelsea goal of the season.

He ran almost half the pitch dodging 3 to 4 Sunderland players and finally despite being marked and blocked, lashed a powerful right footer.

For a left footed player to score such a goal shows the confidence the player has. Then there was Frank Lampard. A fine performance capped with a brace.

I was waiting to see the kids, especially after we were 4-0 by half time, but Carlo didn’t bring them on, unfortunately.

The disappointment of the afternoon has to be Joe Cole. In fact, he played well but he missed two glorious chances, one of them was the first chance that fell for Chelsea. I felt sorry for him. This was a perfect match for him to get a goal or two.

Again, he played well and did help his team a lot but a couple of goals would have done a lot of good for him.

The other disappointment was the two goals that we conceded. All through the match, Jones was winning the ball in the air with ease and Bent was able to get through to the box fairly regularly.

Both those goals were poorly conceded, but the seven goals that we scored kind of swept them under the carpet.

Earlier, Stoke City spoilt the revival party for Rafa Benitez. I watched only the second half of this match and I thought Stoke deserved the result thoroughly.

Rafa can cry about the penalties that weren’t awarded. How many times he was gifted with penalties that weren’t, at Anfield? When Maxi came in for Liverpool, I was thinking about the penalty that was given to Liverpool against Atletico at Anfield, thanks to a trademark stoppage-time stunt by Gerrard. What goes ’round comes ’round.

I was hoping to see Man Utd draw but they came strongly in the second half. Let’s see if Bolton can do it to Arsenal today. All’s well for Chelsea.