Chelsea 3 Birmingham 0
Wednesday 27th January 2010, 9:59PM GMT.
Birmingham’s 15-match unbeaten run came to an end as Chelsea swept to victory at Stamford Bridge.
Conceding a goal to Florent Malouda after just five minutes was not the best of starts, and a brace from Frank Lampard in the second-half sent the home side back to the top of the Premier League.
It was a double choker for Birmingham, as anything from the game would have seen them equal the record for consecutive unbeaten Premier League games for a promoted team, still standing at 13 by Nottingham Forest in the 1994/95 season.
The writing was on the wall when Malouda stole in unmarked for a simple header to open the scoring in the early stages, after Joe Cole had beaten Lee Bowyer for pace to get his cross away.
But Blues had a chance to equalise when Cameron Jerome let fly, only for strike partner Christian Benitez to unwittingly deflect his effort over the crossbar.
Chelsea continued to press forward and got their reward on 32 minutes, with a goal that gave their visitors a mountain to climb.
Space opened up for Lampard with the defence standing still, leaving the England midfielder ample time to steer a low shot past the dive of goalkeeper Joe Hart and into the far corner.
Blues did have opportunites to come back into the game in the second-half, first when James McFadden pulled his shot wide when very well placed in the area, then when sub Keith Fahey’s bullet forced a flying parry from goalkeeper Petr Cech.
But Chelsea put the icing on the cake in the last minute with another goal, after Maluoda broke in space and found him with a crossfield pass, which the unmarked Lampard took in his stride and slotted past the onrushing Hart.
UK Sport
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