We’re back. It’s great when your favourable predictions come good. The match kicked off at 15:00. At exactly 15:02, I dropped a one liner in BC Shout “I know it’s only two minutes but I think we are playing well and we will win”. At half time, in response to my cousin’s message about this being a nervy match, I texted him “We’re playing well . . we will win BIG”. When we went 3-1 ahead, I texted my friend that we won’t stop and we’ll score two more. At 5-1, I said we’ll score two more! We bloody did! 7 goals against the meanest defence in this league this season!

This is how I ended the last blog – “A resounding win over Aston Villa could put us right back on track. Carlo needs to choose the right team and play the right tactic. Villa at Stamford Bridge is beatable.” Exactly, this resounding win over Aston Villa has put us right back on track!

Aston Villa are a tricky team to play at this stage of the season. We’ve had inconsistent results against Villa in the last few seasons. There have been matches where we have been beaten fair and square at Villa Park and we’ve also taught them some lessons in Stamford Bridge (that 2-0 under Scolari). I’m kinda confident about the smaller teams and the real rivals. It is the likes of Villa, Spurs, Man City, Everton etc that make me nervous. Especially, Martin O Neill’s teams are always not easy to play against. And I don’t know if this was his worst ever defeat. I heard that this was the heaviest defeat for Villa in the last 45 years or something.

Credit to Ancelotti for the spirit shown by Chelsea on the pitch. It was clear that he wanted us to have a go at Aston Villa. Carlo, like us, has been waiting to see a strong reaction from Chelsea for the recents downs and also to show everyone that we’re very serious about the premier league title. It is our approach and handling of the match in the first few minutes that made me believe that we are winning this one. I was happy that he played a 4-3-3 instead of playing a 4-4-2. If we want to demolish oppositions, 4-3-3 is the way to go. If we want control, we go with 4-4-2.

Only last week I had mentioned that players like Joe Cole should get a start if we want to get the best out of them. Today, both Joe Cole and Deco started the match. And these ball players really settled to the pace of the game and they were a joy to watch when they play like that. Joe Cole was good but his performance was made to look better because of Deco and Lampard and also the fact that we got a big win. I’m yet to see a 8/10 performance from him this season.

Let’s spare a moment for Paulo Ferreira. The man’s been doing really really well both in defence as well as in attack. I must say I haven’t really missed Bosingwa as much as I have missed Ivanovic. But Paulo has done a superb job. He keeps showing what a thorough defender he is and how reliable he is. Patrick van Aanholt got his minutes again. The boy looks big and strong. With the little I’ve seen of him, he is very promising, particularly in offence.

In a match where we scored 7 goals which also included a goal by the sub Kalou, Anelka couldn’t score one for himself. But fair play to him, he played really well. His contribution as a lone striker was much better than when he plays second fiddle to Drogba. Also Lampard seemed to relish playing behind a lone striker rather than a pair. Traditionally, Lampard’s best performances for Chelsea have come when he plays in a 4-3-3 rather than 4-4-2.

The age-old debate of whether we play our best football when Drogba is away would be resumed today. In the six league games that Drogba did not start, we have scored 25 goals! This is not a ‘who is better’ discussion. This shows the kind of options that are available for me. In any big game, any game against the rivals, I absolutely love to see Drogba in the line up because I’m not keen about us scoring 4 goals. All I want is a win against the rivals. Drogba would be well rested and be raring to go against Man Utd next weekend.

I’ve already run out of superlatives for Frank Lampard. You know how big a fan I’m of Lampard. To be honest, in the middle of this season, he did produce a few off-colour performances. You can always bet on Lampard to turn it around and silence his critics. He’s done that time and again. He still get a lot of flak from the supporters of the Red clubs but deep down they would acknowledge what a fine player he is. His performance today was really a masterclass in attacking midfield play. It’s great to have Lampard is the best of spirits ahead of the Man Utd game because as we say ‘when Lampard plays well, Chelsea wins’.

I’m only getting more convinced that Florent Malouda is the ‘Chelsea player of the season’. Is the best left winger in England? A win doesn’t seem to taste as much without a goal from Flo. With their super quick feet and skills, Zhirkov and Malouda can be quite a headache for any defence. While Zhirkov was at fault for the Carew goal, he more than made up for it with the two penalty wins. He may not quite get this kind of freedom against the Reds next weekend. That’ll be a real test for him. Would be interesting to see how he copes up.

When a team can beat a champions league spot contender with a 7-1 scoreline at this stage of the season that must be the best performance of this league season. In this season, no team has dismissed any other with such authority, style and ease. Now Chelsea are the perfect frame of mind to visit Old Trafford and have about a week to rest and prepare while Man Utd will have to play Bayern in the mid-week. With this big win, we’re now miles ahead of our rivals in the goal difference column. While at one point, this season looked like crumbling in front of our eyes, it’s fair to say that we’ve not only resurrected but also put ourselves in a superb spot for a shot at the title.

If Chelsea thrashing Villa 7-1 wasn’t enough, the stoppage time equaliser by Birmingham sent me crazy! Believe, at around half time, I was telling my friend that Brum will score in the stoppage time. Not that I’ve suddenly become a master predictor, it’s just that today seems to be my day!