Frank Lampard scored twice as Chelsea leap-frogged champions Manchester United into top spot in the English Premier League with a 5-0 rout of Blackburn Rovers at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.
An own-goal in the 20th minute from French defender Gael Givet, who turned Nicolas Anelka’s cross past goalkeeper Paul Robinson under pressure from Didier Drogba, put the Blues ahead.
England midfielder Lampard scored his first Premier League goal since April when he fired home from Drogba’s pull-back, before Michael Essien wrapped up the points in the 52nd minute when he beat Robinson with a curving shot from fully 35m out.
Lampard scored his second, and Chelsea’s fourth, from the penalty spot after Drogba was brought down seven minutes later by Rovers captain Ryan Nelsen, the New Zealand defender.
The impressive Drogba then added a fifth in the 64th minute as Chelsea made it nine goals in two matches after their midweek 4-0 Champions League defeat of Atletico Madrid.
It was an important result for the Blues after they had lost 2-1 to Aston Villa last time out in the Premier League.
Lampard was especially pleased by the confident return of fellow England international Joe Cole, playing his first Premier League match since suffering a knee injury against Southend United in January.
“He is different class,” Lampard said.
Cole said: “When you’re out for 10 months, just getting back on the training pitch is great, so to come back to a game like that was fantastic.”
Earlier, Tottenham Hotspur missed the chance to go level on points with Manchester United after losing 1-0 late on at home to Stoke City.
The match was goalless until four minutes from time when Glenn Whelan, played in by Ricardo Fuller, struck against a home team a man down, with England winger Aaron Lennon off the field after the north Londoners had used all three substitutes.
Lennon took himself off and Spurs manager Harry Redknapp said: “We’re not sure what the problem is. He just said he couldn’t carry on and that was that.”
Stoke boss Tony Pulis, once Redknapp’s assistant at Bournemouth, said: “Ricardo’s pulled a genie out of the bottle again. That was terrific and Glenn finished it with aplomb.”
Meanwhile, Colombia’s Hugo Rodallega scored twice as Wigan Athletic came from behind to end Burnley’s 100 percent home record this term in a 3-1 win.
Burnley took an early lead at Turf Moor when Steven Fletcher turned in Robbie Blake’s cross in the fourth minute, but Wigan equalized in bizarre fashion seven minutes later when Burnley goalkeeper Brian Jensen slipped as he came for a Mario Melchiot cross, allowing Rodallega to shoot into the unguarded net.
Jensen went off injured moments later.
Rodallega then made it 2-1 when he turned in Jason Scotland’s 51st-minute cross, before Emmerson Boyce scored from a corner.
At St Andrews, in Birmingham City’s first home game since Hong Kong businessman Carson Yeung bought the club, City went ahead against Sunderland eight minutes before halftime when Liam Ridgewell got on the end of a Sebastian Larsson free-kick.
Soon after the break, Scotland striker James McFadden doubled Birmingham’s lead following good work by Larsson, but Sunderland gave themselves a lifeline when Birmingham’s Scott Dann put through his own net eight minutes from time.
At the bottom of the table, Portsmouth were held to a goalless draw by fellow strugglers Hull City.
In a dire opening half at the KC Stadium, Portsmouth’s Tommy Smith squandered a couple of chances for the visitors. After halftime, Pompey’s Aruna Dindane and Hassan Yebda were both denied by Hull keeper Boaz Myhill.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with