Chelsea 6 - QPR 1

Last updated : 29 April 2012 By Paul Lagan
Fernando Torres blew QPR away with a devastating hat-trick as the Blues went rampant against their west London rivals at Stamford Bridge this afternoon.

The 6-1 rout keeps the Blues in the hunt for fourth place in the Premier League and conspires to keep the visitors hanging onto their status in the top flight by their fingertips.

The £50m hit man, who scored the second goal in the Nou Camp in midweek, continued where he left off. Along with Daniel Sturridge, John Terry and Florent Malouda, the Blues took Rangers apart.

Djibril Cisse scored a consolation goal but this match was all about the Champions League finalist.

Chelsea started the game as if they were jet-fuelled and it took Daniel Sturridge just 55 seconds to open the scoring when he let fly from just outside of the QPR penalty area.

It was the first attack from either side.

His right-footed screamer arrowed past the hapless dive of Paddy Kenny into the goalkeeper's right-hand corner of the net.

QPR countered quite well, with Djibril Cisse giving Paulo Ferreira a bit of a run-around.

Thankfully Petr Cech was on hand to deal with Cisses's incisive right byline crosses.

John Terry almost hit number two with a smart volley on 11 minutes, this was followed by a delicate chop from Frank Lampard. both times Kenny was equal to the task.

However seconds later, from the resultant corner from Lampard, Terry powered home a header from close range to double the home side's lead.

On 19 minutes and QPR were carved open again to concede a third. Immaculate midfield play between Juan Mata and Michael Essien, saw the Ghana player bisect the visitors' defence with an inch-perfect pass to in-running Fernando Torres, who like against Barcelona in midweek, passed the ball round Kenny and slotted cooly into an empty net.

Oh dear, six minutes later and it was number four.

Again Essien to Mata set the play up. The Spain midfielder sliced a pass towards Torres in the QPR penalty. Right-back Nedun Onuoha tried to head the ball back to Kenny, who fumbled the chance. The ball fell gleefully to Torres, who smashed in a left-footer from six yards out.

Lampard almost squeezed home a fifth on 29 injures but Kenny blocked the lunge for the ball of the midfielder.

Onuoha, perhaps sensing he needed to make amends fired a fierce shot towards Cech's goal on 36 minutes, Unluckily for the defender his shot from the edge of the Chelsea penalty area went high and wide.

Chelsea started off the second half like the first on te front foot.

Five minutes after the restart, Ashley Cole zipped through the hear of the opponents before slipping the to Mata. Unfortunately for the midfielder, he scuffed his shot which went limply to Kenny.

Petr Cech produced a superb save on 53 minutes, beating away a monster 25-yard drive from Jamie Mackie, which took a deflection off the boot of Terry along the way.

Inevitably the Blues hit thief fifth.

Following a quick counter-attack, started by Terry, on 63 minutes, Torres beat the offside trap as Mata opened up the QPR defence. The forward then found himself on a one-on-one with Kenny and confidently side-footed the ball past the goalkeeper to confirm his hat-trick.

The goal glut continued with 10 minutes remaining when substitute Florent Malouda had the simplest of chances to tuck home from close range after Ramires arrowed the ball across from the byline.

Perhaps sensing the game was now safe, Chelsea lost concentration and with six minutes remaining allowed Onuoha too much time on the right.

He fed the ball to Cisse who drilled in past Cech from an acute angle eight yards from goal give the visiting fans something to cheer about.

Teams: Chelsea- Cech, Cole, Essien, Lampard, Torres, Mata, Bosingwa! Ferreira, Kalou, Sturridge, Terry. Subs, Turnbull, Romeu, Ramires, Drogba, Malouda, Meireles, Hutchinson. QPR - Kenny, Hill, Mackie, Buzaky, Barton, Cisse, Taiwo, Ferdininad, Onuoha, Zamora Subs, Cerny, Gabbidon, Campbell, Traore, Young, Smith, Wright-Phillips Ref: Howard Webb