Chelsea prepared for their crunch match in Europe with a rather lacklustre win over Wigan Athletic.

A second-half Florent Malouda goal proved to be enough to secure all three points and thereby maintaining hopes of overcoming Arsenal in the coming weeks.

With a big match coming up in a few days, Carlo Ancelotti understandably rotated his side around and rested some of the key individuals. Frank Lampard, fresh from making his 500^th appearance, was made the captain on the day as John Terry was given a rest. Fernando Torres also started on the bench, but there were starts for both, Nicolas Anelka and Florent Malouda.

Wigan had former Chelsea boy, Franco Di Santo, on their bench as they looked to continue their impressive away form, a run which has seen them collect draws away to Liverpool and Tottenham.

Chelsea started well, and Drogba created the first chance of the day as he bulldozed his way past Alcaraz on the right side to find Lampard, but he miss hit his shot and the ball fell to Ramires, whose first touch let him down.

Drogba was again involved when he laid the ball for Malouda, but the Frenchmen, under pressure and on his weak foot, could only hit his shot straight at Al-Habsi.

Didier Drogba and Florent Malouda combined once again, as Drogba’s header found the on-rushing Florent Malouda, but his shot again failed to find the back of the net.

The closest Wigan came to troubling Petr Cech in the first half was when McCarthy’s volley from over 20 yards went wide after a Wigan corner was only half-cleared.

The first half ended goalless as despite dominating the play, Chelsea lacked the final touch, making it comfortable for Wigan as the half wore on.

Carlo Ancelotti introduced Yossi Benayoun at the start of the second half in place of Obi Mikel as he looked to find creativity in the middle of the park, as well as give Mikel some rest ahead of the game against Manchester United.

The second half begin to take a similar pattern as the first, not for the first time this season one should add, making the crowd a little restless on a beautiful sunny day in London.

Soon, Carlo Ancelotti resorted to Fernando Torres to provide a spark to his Chelsea side who clearly had the United game on their minds. Nicolas Anelka came off for the Spaniard on the hour mark, meaning that he hasn’t played the full 90mins for the past 10 games now.

Fernando Torres introduction seemed to lift the whole ground who were starting to get a little jittery with Chelsea unable to find that elusive breakthrough. His first part in the game was to earn a free kick, which was again taken by the set-piece taker of the day, Didier Drogba, and forced Al-Habsi into a good save.

Chelsea soon had the lead though; Luiz flicking from a corner which Al-Habsi could only half-parry under pressure from Torres, resulting in a shot by Ivanovic, before it finally fell to Malouda, who didn’t miss the opportunity this time from six yards out to scramble it home through a melee of Wigan players in the box.

For the rest of the game we saw Fernando Torres get into good positions, but unable to take his chances to open his scoring account for the Blues, with Yossi Benayoun providing him with at least two great chances, including the ball of the match as he played a wonderful through ball down the middle to find Torres.

Wigan did remind Chelsea why a one goal lead could be a tricky situation as, first, Franco Di Santo, and then Victor Moses forced Cech into saves late on in the match.

The performance from the Blues was not their best, but they were the better side on the day and did the job, considering that a big match is coming up in the week, it wasn’t the worst possible day out which was made even better by the return of Benayoun and Alex, who in particular looked made it look that he’s never been away.

Carlo Ancelotti admitted that the United game had a role to play in the performance, but was satisfied with the three points, at the end of the match, he said; “We wanted to start well. We had a difficult game because they put a lot of pressure on us and we were not able to play our football. The first half was not so good.”

“There is some reason for this. The game was between the quarter-finals so it was difficult to stay focused on this.

“The second half was a lot better but we had lost a lot of energy in the first half. We have won a difficult game, a very important game. Now we have to look forward to the next one.”

Chelsea (4-3-3): Cech; Ferreira (Alex 75), Ivanovic, Terry, Cole; Ramires, Obi Mikel (Benayoun 46), Lampard (c); Malouda, Drogba, Anelka (Torres 59).

Two games, two six nil victories.  This has not been the start to the season many of us foresaw after our poor pre-season, yet here we sit just over two weeks into the new campaign with a 100% record, and a goal difference of +12 already.

Ok so our opponents haven’t provided the sternest of testa so far but as the old adage goes, you can only beat what’s in front of you, and beat them we have.

Much has been made of Wigan manager Martinez’s comments that his team were unlucky, he’s been derided in most reports I’ve seen so far yet, up until half time it’s hard to argue against his assertion that Wigan were the better side.

Wigan certainly started brightly pressing as expected down our right flank, giving Ivanovic, who looked ring rusty and with a heavy touch on more than one occasion, the run-around for most of the first 45 minutes.

Chelsea struggled to get any real time on the ball with Wigan pressing hard all over the pitch, first to any second balls and not giving us any time to settle into a rhythm, and it was Wigan who fashioned many of the earlier chances with Figueroa and Rodallega testing Cech, who was thankfully up to the task.

It was against the run of play that Chelsea then put together a lovely flowing move, with some lovely passing that saw the ball worked to Ashley Cole out side, who pulled the ball back into the effort to Lampard, making his customary charge into the box.

Unlike Lampard though, he played a tame shot looking for precision rather than power, which allowed Kirkland to get a hand to the ball and divert it away from the goal, Malouda reacted quicker than anyone and latched onto the rebound to slot it home, and settle the nerves a bit.

Wigan came back and continued to press but nonetheless went in at half time still a goal down, but no doubt buoyed by the performance shown, Chelsea weren’t firing and were in truth fortunate to be ahead, a point Carlo would have made a little firmer than I can print here, and within minutes of the restart it was clear it had worked.

Chelsea kicked off like a different team, the passing was sharper, the movement more fluid and with the team not playing as deep as the first half, it wasn’t long before a goal came.

Mikel received the ball deep in his own half, and with the first touch sent a beautiful pass from inside his own half into the path of the onrushing Anelka, who’d timed his run perfectly, to pick up the ball inside the Wigan area and slot into to the far post past Kirkland with his first touch. Two touches, 60 yards covered, goal. A classic counter attack.

Chelsea’s third came minutes later and it was again Anelka who finished a lovely move, another break saw Malouda latch onto the ball wide on the left, cross to the far post where Drogba was waiting. He knocked the ball back towards the goal and the recently exiled French international headed home, albeit from an offside position that the linesman missed.

By now Chelsea’s tails were up and the team again sensed goals, and it wasn’t long before another came. This time Drogba picking the ball up just inside the Wigan half, knocking it past his man and sprinting onto the ball, whilst his run and movement drew the defenders he unselfishly laid the ball onto the onrushing Kalou who slotted home with ease.

With news pre-match of how Drogba could set a record as the first man to make a ‘hat-trick of hat-tricks’ it was a hat-trick of a different kind he completed, with an absolute peach of a cross from the left beating the defence for Kalou to rise above the Wigan defence and head home, to make it three assists for Didier.

The final whistle approached, yet Chelsea still weren’t done and continued attacking, working the ball out to Ferreira, who’d replaced the tiring Ivanovic on the right, tearing towards the Wigan area and pulling the ball back for substitute Benayoun to strike the ball past Kirkland two minutes into injury time to make it 6-0 for the second week running.

After the game, Ancelotti reflected on the match; “We have a lot of skills, now the best quality is we are able to do a fantastic counter-attack, we have strikers who are fast with ability, so when we have space it is difficult to control for the opponent. Obviously we wanted to win the game and to play well, and we did both.”

“We’ve won two games, played good football and scored a lot of goals but we are focused to play good football. It is impossible to think we are always to score six goals in a game, this is not real football, this is Playstation.”

No Carlo, this is real, very real. If there’s a better, more effective or more entertaining team anywhere in the world right now, then I’ve yet to see them.

Chelsea (4-3-3): Cech, Ivanovic (Ferreira 63), Alex, Terry (c), Cole; Essien (Benayoun 78), Mikel, Lampard; Anelka, Drogba, Malouda (Kalou 70).

Goals: Malouda 33, Anelka 47, 51, Kalou 77, 89, Benayoun 90+3

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So put your hands up if you were concerned before last weekends match against West Brom? Us too, however with that potential banana skin successfully traversed, today’s match seems much more of a formality, and that is why we must be careful.

Complacency can be this teams greatest threat as we make the trip North to face Martinez’s Lactics, fresh from our 6-0 win over West Brom and with their shock reverse 4-0 to Blackpool, on paper we should win this comfortably, however we all know football isn’t played on paper.

With an 8-0 win at Stamford Bridge the last time the two teams met, Wigan will be looking to show they can still compete at the top level, and Carlo Ancelotti isn’t expecting a repeat of the previous meeting. Speaking to ChelseaFC.com he said; “I am sure it will be a different game, the last game at Wigan we lost 3-1, and for this reason I think we have to prepare well for this game, above all mentally.”

“I will be happy if we can win just 1-0. It is important to have a clean sheet, it is important to score when possible but this is not football, to win 6-0 or 7-0 cannot happen every day. It is important to win, to play well, and if possible to score. We have to pay attention, they started bad, lost at home against Blackpool and they want to be strong, to have power tomorrow, to do a different match.”

Speaking of his first defeat as a Chelsea manager away to Wigan last season, he recalled; “We had problems last season, it was our first defeat and now we want to continue, we started well, it is important to have a good start, not just one game but also the others. Last year we won the first games and we want to do the same because it is important to start well.”

Revealing some team news Ancelotti said that Ramires is not yet ready to play, but should be ready for Stoke next week, and also informed us that Ivanovic is fit again after a stomach problem and should start, probably at right back as Alex continues in the centre with Terry. Lampard is fit and will play, despite reports earlier in the week that he may not start,

Speaking of our current injuries he said; “We are without Bosingwa, he will start to train with the team next week and maybe needs again two or three weeks to play. Bruma will have surgery this morning for a hernia, and Kakuta has a problem on his back. The other players are in good condition.”

The match kicks off at 17:15 this afternoon and you can follow us on Twitter for match updates.

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Chelsea stormed to the English Premier League title by thrashing hapless Wigan Athletic 8-0 in the final match of the season.

Manchester United’s 4-0 win at home to Stoke City was irrelevant, as Didier Drogba’s hat trick, Nicolas Anelka’s brace and further goals from Frank Lampard, Salomon Kalou and Ashley Cole rounded out a sensational victory.

Wigan started brightly, but the Blues took the lead in the sixth minute and from there the result was inevitable. Malouda showed good strength to chest a headed ball from Ballack down for Anelka, who finished inside Mike Pollitt’s near post.

The second also came in the first half, Lampard converting a penalty that he won after being hauled down by Gary Caldwell who was sent off.

In the second period though, Chelsea turned on the style and ruthlessly disposed of Wigan, who offered little to no resistance, aside from a few good Pollitt saves. The third came from Kalou, after he exchanged passes with Lampard, before finishing smartly.

Four came courtesy of Anelka. Ivanovic’s deep cross from the right found the French forward at the back post, where me executed a perfect first time volley back across goal and into the far corner.

Drogba, still level with Rooney on league goals, was desperate to get involved and finally scored his goal soon after. His overhead was saved by Pollitt, but he rose highest to head in at the back post after Lampard recovered the loose ball and crossed.

Some beautiful skill from the Ivorian sent Ashley Cole through, only for the left back to be felled by Melchiot. Another penalty was given by the referee only this time Drogba stepped up, smashing it in off the post for seal his Golden Boot. Then, he tapped in at the back post for his hat trick, after Pollitt saved well from substitute Joe Cole.

Chelsea weren’t done yet and their biggest league win ever was sealed right on the 90, when Joe Cole’s tenacity saw him cross from the by line under pressure to his namesake Ashley, who hit a stunningly sweet volley from the edge of the box for the magnificent eighth and the record 103rd goal of the league season.

Stamford Bridge was in party mode from the first goal to the last and when John Terry lifted the trophy, the explosion of noise from all four sides of the ground was immense. Have no doubt, Chelsea was the best team in the land and Ancelotti’s entertainers are deserved Premier League winners.

We are the Champions!

The editors of TheChels would like to apologise for the lateness of this report, our writing team hit the absinthe hard on Sunday night, and most of them are only just waking up.

Today could possibly be the start of an historic double winning season for Chelsea. Scrap that, today WILL be the start of an historic double winning season for Chelsea.

As always with Chelsea there are reasons to be nervous; season of relative inconsistency, scandals and non handshakes. However it’s also been a season of goals galore, with three 7 goal thrashings at Stamford Bridge this season.

Chelsea’s starting 11 should walk out of the tunnel not worried or anxious about the next 90 minutes, but instead brimming with confidence because of a fantastic season (if you exclude February).

Chelsea need three goals to surpass the highest number of goals scored in a Premier League season (97 set by Manchester United in 99/00 season) they’ve already had three 7 goal victories at the Bridge, something that’s never been done before, and they also face a Wigan side who have only scored 18 goals away from home this season and have only managed 3 wins, none of which have come in the Capital.

Since the return of the Special One, the draw at Blackburn and a heated exchange between the players and staff at the Cobham training ground, Chelsea have never looked back, with the exception of Tottenham, Chelsea have been victors in every game, and that run has included victories away at both Liverpool and closest rivals Manchester United.

There should be no nerves in the crowd, there should be four stands singing their hearts out as Chelsea go on to lift the title (although we know the East and West stands aren’t renowned for their noise, it was nice to see them joining in the celebrations at the end of the Stoke game).

From the first whistle to the last, the team needs to ooze the confidence that they showed against Sunderland, Aston Villa, Stoke and then Liverpool last Sunday. Chelsea will have no problems in beating Wigan and its time we had faith in ourselves.

If Carlo and JT get their speeches right, there’ll be one heck of a party in West London on Sunday evening.