Chelsea 6 Manchester City 0:So much for the Special One. If Jose Mourinho made Chelsea less beatable Avram Grant is making them more watchable. Manchester City found them uncatchable on Saturday as Chelsea achieved their biggest victory since August 1997, when Gianluca Vialli scored four times as Ruud Gullit's team welcomed Barnsley to the Premier League with a 6-0 win at Oakwell.
Gullit was sacked the following February, Vialli becoming player-manager, but so long as Grant continues to bring a contented smile to the face of Roman Abramovich he and his new assistant coach, Henk ten Cate, should be around a while longer. Not that Grant would confirm rumours he is about to sign a new three-year contract, although getting the owner's pal, Andriy Shevchenko, off the bench to score Chelsea's sixth goal in the last minute looked a shrewd move.
At heart this is still the Chelsea of Mourinho, based on sound defensive principles with Mikel's assiduous tracking-down of Elano, City's Brazilian inspiration, as crucial as their attacking excellence. Impressive though it was, moreover, Saturday's performance needs to be kept in perspective. City's manager, Sven-Goran Eriksson, was not being disingenuous when he declared "we made Chelsea look better than they are today".
From Chelsea's point of view what made the result significant, in addition to the winning margin, was the eagerness with which their players sought further goals long after the contest had been decided. This would not have been Mourinho's way. Once Didier Drogba's second goal had given Chelsea a 3-0 lead before the hour the game would have been rapidly wound down as the team played out time.
Grant sees things differently which is why he is now in charge. "We are concentrating on attacking football," he said. "How to move right, how to behave right, how to get the best out of the players and make them better. I know we cannot do it in every game over the 90 minutes but I think we need in modern football for people to come and have fun."
Under Mourinho fun was strictly rationed, and despite Grant's good intentions Chelsea will still experience occasions when the frolics have to take second place to achieving a satisfactory result. Nevertheless, Stamford Bridge should be in for a few more fun days to judge from the way the full-backs, Juliano Belletti, Paulo Ferreira and, when fit, Ashley Cole, are allowed to overlap in attack whereas previously they were tethered to the halfway line.
Saturday's success, however, was rooted more in Chelsea's mastery of the midfield in which Frank Lampard was outstanding with Michael Essien not far behind. There was a telling moment in the ninth minute when Dietmar Hamann sold himself as he went to challenge Lampard and found himself tackling thin air.
Manchester City remain a pratfall waiting to happen but their early-season form had been impressive, not least because of the discipline and composure Eriksson had brought to the defence. "Maybe there has been too much talk about us playing good football," he said, " . . . if you don't defend well then these things will happen that have happened today. If you give Frank Lampard, Michael Essien and Joe Cole all the time and space we gave them they will kill you, and they killed us. If you defend in football today you have to defend with 11. We did exactly the opposite."
Bereft of midfield cover City's back four were drawn and quartered, most notably by Lampard's superb diagonal ball, which sent in Drogba for Chelsea's second, his cushioned pass having set up Essien for their first. Drogba scored again after Lampard, who looked offside, had seen his shot parried by Joe Hart, and the Ivorian's nod-down released Cole to score a fourth. Essien created a fifth for Salomon Kalou and a sixth for the relieved Shevchenko.
By this time Javier Garrido, allegedly City's left-back, might as well have worn a notice saying All Through Traffic. Not that Chelsea needed any guidance. They were having fun.
