Chelsea 6 - 0 West Bromwich Albion:Drogba treble leads Chelsea beat West Brom

Enjoy:Florent Malouda celebrates with Chelsea players after his tap in gave Chelsea the lead.

Double winners Chelsea fired an early warning to their Premier League title rivals as Didier Drogba,last season top scorer scored a superb hat-trick as the Blues cruised to victory and flew to the top of the table,  in their opening-day thrashing of new boys West Brom at Stamford Bridge.It took Malouda just six minutes to score the Blues' first goal of the season, capitalising on a error by Albion's former England keeper Scott Carson.

The chance arose after the home side had pieced together the first fluent attacking move of the afternoon that came to an abrupt end when Malouda was tripped just outside the Albion penalty area.Didier Drogba fired a powerful free kick through the defensive wall, Carson failed to hold the shot and Malouda finished from close range after the keeper had blocked John Obi Mikel's initial follow-up.That was precisely the start the visitors didn't want as they began their attempt to establish themselves in the top-flight after years of flitting between the top two divisions.

Double:Didier Drogba smashed in a wonderful free kick to double the lead

They proved to be fleeting moments and with Chelsea in complete control, it was only a matter of time before the champions scored a second.Lampard came close with a 40th minute free kick that Carson again parried only for France international Malouda to head the rebound over the crossbar.Yet that proved to be only a brief reprieve for Albion with Drogba firing another free-kick through a leaky defensive wall seconds before the half time interval to deplete what remained of the visitors' confidence.It was, though, 2-0 just before the break.

Drogba added his second from another set-piece, this time from close range after John Terry's header had been cleared off the line following a Malouda superb corner.After that,Frank Lampard struck next in the 63rd minute from first choice England left back,Ashley Cole passing, five minutes before Drogba completed his hat-trick with a deflected shot and flew into the bottom corner past a wrong-footed Carson. and finally Malouda wrapped up the win with another goal in the final minute came from a beautiful through ball from Anelka.

TEAMS:

Chelsea (4-3-3)Petr Cech; Paulo Ferreira (Branislav Ivanovic 59), Alex, John Terry (c), Ashley Cole; Michael Essien, John Mikel Obi, Frank Lampard (Yossi Benayoun 63); Florent Malouda, Didier Drogba (Salomon Kalou 69), Nicolas Anelka.
Scorers Malouda 5, 89, Drogba 45, 55, 67, Lampard 61.
Booked Ferreira 57.

West Brom (4-2-3-1): Carson (c); Jara, Tamas, Ibanez, Cech; Mulumbu, Brunt; Morrison, Dorrans (Cox 67), Thomas (Barnes 83); Bednar (Miller 67).

MATCH INFORMATION:

Stadium: Stamford Bridge, England
Attendance: 41,589
Official(s):
Mark Clattenburg (Referee)