Chelsea boos Jose Mourinho was sent off and his charges smashed four to humble plucky Cardiff City as Chelsea go second in the Premier League.
This s game had everything, controversial goals, shocking defending, a first strike for Samuel Eto'o and The Special One sent to the stands.
The visitors took an early lead through Gary Mendel as Luiz looked as if he was still suffering from jet lag after his international break to the Far East.
But Eden Hazard equalised after a Marshall gaff.
Eto'o then put the Blues into the lead.
With Cardiff in disarray, the home side then took full advantage and added goals through a fine strike by substitute Oscar before Hazard notched his second.
To add insult to injury, Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho was sent to the stand by referee Anthony Taylor, a victim of his own frustration at his side's underwhelming performance.
Chelsea started, as expected with with all of the possession but incredibly made a basic, schoolboy error on 10 minutes to gift the visitors an opening goal.
A long kick by goalkeeper David Marshall was sliced off John Terry's right boot after a challenge from Peter Odemwingie into the path of David Luiz. The Brazil defender decided inexplicably to let the ball travel under his body back to Peter Cech. But Luiz's misjudgement of the slow pace of the ball was picked up by striker Jordon Mutch and the hit man zipped in and clipped the ball over a prone Cech and into the net.
Six minutes later Chelsea had a fine chance to equalise when from. Juan Mata right-sided corner, the ball was met by the glancing head of captain John Terry. Unfortunately for Chelsea, the ball brushed the outside of Marshall's right post and away to safety.
The Welsh side almost doubled their lead on 20 minutes when a clipped free-kick was headed on by Peter Odemwingie forcing Cech into a spectacular diving save.
If Luiz's error was down to arrogance, Chelsea's equaliser on 33 minutes was plain stupid.
After goalkeeper Marshall dropped the ball in preparation to kick it out, he forgot that Samuel Eto'o was standing beside him. The Cameroon striker kept his eye on the ball and as soon as it hit the ground, he pounced and nicked the ball away, it went to Eden Hazard, who then returned the ball to Eto'o. With the goal gaping, Eto'o decided to cut back and try to round Marshall who quickly recovered his position.
Under a sliding tackle from Gary Medel, the ball fell again to Hazard who did what Eto'o should have done first time and smacked the ball home to level the scores.
Should the goal should have stood? Did the goalie still have control of the ball when he released it from his hand? These decisions will be debated bit referee Anthony Taylor must deemed it that the ball was out of the goalkeeper's control and thus the goal stood.
After getting over the shock off two massive errors, the rest of the half was subdued with no action to speak of.
There were no substations from either manager at half-time.
With a suspicion that Cardiff were already playing for time, referee Taylor booked Marshall for taking a few extra seconds that necessary at a goal kick on 53 minutes.
The first change fell to the away side who brought on Kim Bo-Kyung for Medel. Mata's time was over three minutes later on 59 minutes.Oscar entering the fray for the Spain midfielder.
Of the two, Kim certainly took the eye, with some mazy runs that had the Chelsea rearguard on the back foot several time.
Jose Mourinho decided to make a tactical change, replacing left back Ryan Bertrand for Fernando Torres.
The Blues went to three at the back with de stating consequences.
Not one Blues striker has scored a league goal this season and this was finally ended on 66 minutes when, after a set-up Eto'o cut in from the edge of the Cardiff penalty area and rammed home a smart right-footer past Marshall to put the blues into the lead.
Mourinho then became frustrated as he couldn't get his substitute sorted out quickly.
He wanted to revert to four at the back and hurled a volley of harsh words to his assistant Steve Holland. Eventually Willian feigned an injury and play was stopped to allow Cesar Azpilicueta to replace Eto'o two minutes after he scored.
Mourinho, still furious then had words with referee Taylor. This resulted in the Portuguese manager getting his marching orders and sent to sit in the stand behind the dugout.
The tactical change worked and Oscar showed why his is so important to the side as he smashed home a third goal on 77 minutes from just outside the Cardiff area.
Goalkeeper Marshall compounded a miserable personal performance with eight minutes to go, when he let a speculative Hazard byline shot squeeze under his body to give the Blues a 4-1 lead.
The Blues are currently second in the league behind North London rivals Arsenal. This week they jet out to Germany to face Schalke in the Champions League before they face Manchester City at the Bridge next Sunday.
There will be no room for errors in that game.
Teams:
Chelsea, Cech, Ivanovic, Luiz, Ramires, Lampard, Mata, Hazard, Willian, Terry, Eto'o, Bertrand.
Subs: Schwarzer, Essien, Totres, Oscar, De Bruyne, Cahill, Azpilicueta
Cardiff City: Marshall, Taylor, Caulker, Turner, Whittingham, Medel, Odemwingie, Mutch, Cowie, Theophile-Catherine
Subs: Lewis, Hudson, Campbell, Bo-kyung, Gestede, Noone, Maynard
Referee: Anthony Taylor