CHELSEA RETURNED to the top of the Premier League table yesterday in resounding style with their heaviest ever top-flight victory at Stoke City’s expense, leaving Carlo Ancelotti to remind his players that “the destiny of the title is still in our hands” ahead of next weekend’s potentially decisive trip to Liverpool.
The Londoners re-established their one-point advantage at the summit having scored seven goals for the third time this season, taking their season’s league tally to a staggering 93.
Stoke manager Tony Pulis admitted his team had been “murdered” as the hosts ran riot, Salomon Kalou registering his first hat-trick for the club as Chelsea recovered momentum after the damaging loss at Tottenham the previous week.
Their attempt to regain the title may now hinge on their result at Anfield on Sunday, with Chelsea aware that victories in their final two games will clinch the championship for the first time since 2006. “It’s important that our destiny is in our own hands,” Ancelotti said. “I don’t know why I should feel any pressure now. Alex (Ferguson) says it is ours to lose and that is right. But that’s a good thing. To have it in our own hands is better.
“I am quiet and calm now. I think United will be able to win their last two games. They have Sunderland and Stoke, and every game is a different story, but our aim is just to win our own matches. If we do that, we are champions. Liverpool will be a very difficult game. They are a fantastic team and they are still going for fourth place, so they will want to fight against us.
“Them finishing fourth is very important for the future of their club, but I just hope we play at Liverpool like we did today.”
Chelsea were utterly irresistible against Stoke, who wilted badly under a wave of home attacks. Frank Lampard swelled his tally for the season to 25 in all competitions with a brace, Kalou pilfered a hat-trick and there were further rewards for Florent Malouda and Daniel Sturridge.
“We didn’t need to send out a message to the other teams,” Ancelotti said. “This was a message for us to take on board. We needed a good reaction after the defeat at Tottenham and we got that.
“I don’t think it will come down to goal difference, so that it is not important. There will be one team that arrives in first place and another who finishes second – actually, I’d prefer to have kept two or three goals for next week – but it is good to play in this way. This is our philosophy.”
Stoke’s misery was increased by the dislocated elbow suffered by goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen as Kalou slid in two-footed to convert his second goal, the striker catching the Dane’s right hand and forcing his arm back and the joint out of place.
Sorensen required oxygen pitch-side and departed on a stretcher.
“If it’s a bad challenge, it’s a bad challenge but that doesn’t take away from the fact we were poor today,” Pulis said.
“We’ve got murdered. We were lucky to get nil today, we were that poor. They were going to have a day off tomorrow, but they’re in now. We had five or six players well off it.”
Guardian Service
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