Depleted Chelsea Expose Vast Gap in Class

The gulf between Chelsea and what might be termed the ordinary teams in the Premier League - if that is not too flattering a term for Middlesbrough at the moment - is now officially embarrassing. Or, to use Gareth Southgate's word, painful.

For the second successive league match Chelsea faced a team expected to do well against them, Boro's decent record against top-four teams having been given as much of an airing as Aston Villa's impressive start to the season, and simply shredded their opponents. And this time they did it with a virtual reserve side, or at least a team lacking seven of its biggest names.

The only glimpse of hope for Liverpool, Manchester United and anyone else wishing to contest the title is that this handsome victory was not achieved by Chelsea at their imperious best. Against Boro they did not need to be. All Chelsea did was run, pass and hold the ball well and fully exploit the ample areas of the Riverside pitch the home side left unguarded. Boro's resistance was pitiful. Two years ago after a 3-0 defeat on this ground José Mourinho actually admitted Boro had been the better side and Chelsea had not deserved anything from the game. Humility comes a little more naturally to the Boro manager, who was quick to concede this had in fact been a humiliation.

'A very humbling experience for all of us,' was how Southgate described it. 'I don't even think they were at their very best and they've annihilated us. I had concerns going into the game about our inexperience in defence, but we were very, very poor. I don't know if that's my worst experience as a manager, Cardiff last season comes to mind, but when you are stood on the touchline watching that it is a lonely place. It's painful, but we have to learn from it. If anyone here thought they were anywhere near being a top player they know differently now. Chelsea showed us just how far we still have to go.'

A dismal first half containing a single scrappy goal gave little indication of what was to come. Boro offered little in attack, just Mido, and their hopes of holding out defensively were holed as early as the 14th minute, when Salomon Kalou took advantage of a weak clearing header and then a deflection from David Wheater to prod in from close range. Boro's only chance of drawing level by the interval fell to Stewart Downing from a corner, and his air-shot summed up his side's afternoon.

Still, one might have expected Boro to regroup at half-time and hit Chelsea with something. Instead they gave an even more convincing impression of a doormat. The whole Premier League must know by now that Juliano Belletti will have a pop from 30 yards if you let him - he scored a screamer identical to this one at Wigan last season - yet when the ball rolled his way six minutes into the second half Mohamed Shawky was in no particular hurry to close him down and Ross Turnbull was soon picking the ball out of his net.

Shawky was substituted soon after that, as was Jonathan Grounds after naively letting Florent Malouda get goal side and being relieved to see the winger shoot wide. There was no respite, however. Two minutes after Belletti's goal Kalou scored his second, again with unintentional assistance from Wheater, after Malouda's subtle first-time knockdown. Kalou then turned provider, chipping in a perfectly judged cross from the right for the influential Frank Lampard to head past Turnbull, before the goalkeeper's misery was complete in the 67th when a Nicolas Anelka shot was spilled against a post for the eager Malouda to tap in the rebound.

At five up, with almost 20 minutes remaining, Chelsea brought on Deco. It seemed like a case for the League Against Cruel Sports though to Boro's relief no further goals were racked up, mainly due to Anelka being pulled up for offside after John Johnson had horrified his manager by needlessly giving the ball to Lampard. That was Boro all over, already on a hiding and still making unnecessary mistakes. Luiz Felipe Scolari resisted the temptation to agree this sent out a message to Chelsea's title rivals and said he would have been just as happy with a one-nil.

'If we win 1-0 every week then we are champions,' the Chelsea manager said with impeccable logic, even if it did not quite strike the can-do note his audience wanted to hear. 'We still have many games in front of us, it is too early to talk of being favorites for the title. I don't think we will score five goals every week but once we went in front here more chances came our way and the spaces opened.'

Spaces were soon opening up in the stands too. Sad to report, in these depressed economic times, the visit of the all-singing, all-dancing league leaders was not a sell-out. There were blocks of empty seats among the home fans, and Chelsea did not fill the away end either. At least the visitors stayed until the end, enjoying the show and having no choice anyway. The home fans were free to vote with their feet and long before the final whistle the ground was half-empty. 'The players are very down but they have to leave here hurting,' Southgate said. 'Because that's what the fans did.'