Fulham 1 Chelsea 4

Last updated : 13 November 2004 By Footymad Previewer

Arjen Robben capped another sensational performance with a stunning goal to help maintain impressive Chelsea's lead in the title race.

Robben, who has taken the Premiership by storm since returning from an ankle injury last month, memorably made it four goals in as many games on 58 minutes.

Fulham had briefly threatened to take an undeserved share of the spoils courtesy of a third stunning strike of the afternoon from Papa Bouba Diop It was literally a bolt from the blue as he sent Frank Lampard's headed clearance back with interest with a superb volley from 25 yards.

But man of the moment Robben cut short the home fans celebrations 60 seconds later with the most amazing individual effort.

He ghosted past four defenders as if they weren't there and then calmly struck the ball into the net.

Fulham have not beaten their fierce West London rivals for 25 years and any hope was extinguished when William Gallas headed in Lampard's free-kick and Tiago finished a lovely move late on.

The Cottagers could have no complaints as they were outclassed from pretty much the first minute to the last.

Chelsea wasted a number of chances to take the lead before Lampard fired Chelsea into the lead in the most spectacular fashion in the first half.

The England international struck a vicious swerving free-kick from 25 yards on 33 minutes to leave Mark Crossley rooted to the spot in the Fulham goal.

There was still time for controversy before the interval with referee Uriah Rennie turning down two strong penalty appeals.

Lampard was incensed when he let fly from the edge of the box only to see the ball deflected clear by defender Zesh Rehman's arm.

But to rub salt into the wounds, Lampard was clearly felled by Moritz Volz in the box only to be booked for diving.

Despite Lampard's stunner, the first half was the Robben show as the Dutchman demonstrated lethal pace and dribbling skills to frighten the life out of the home side.

Only a mixture of fine goalkeeping and poor finishing made sure Chelsea weren't five goals up going into half-time.

Lampard had already seen a header brilliantly saved by Crossley and John Terry shot wide after a brilliant solo run, before Robben took centre stage.

The 20-year-old came into the match on the back of three straight games with a goal and he should have added to that tally after 20 minutes.

In the space of seven thrilling minutes, Robben raced clear of the Fulham defence four times only to not supply the finish.

On the first two occasions he found keeper Crossley, who was inspired in Fulham's 4-1 win at Newcastle last week, in more inspirational form.

On 13 minutes he saved well with his feet and two minutes later he sent a wickedly swerving shot clear with his shoulder.

The flying winger decided to pick out a teammate the next two times, but saw Alexei Smertin fire well wide and then Eidur Gudjohnsen miss a sitter.

For Fulham there best spell of the match was at the start and they could have taken the lead with less than 60 seconds on the clock.

Andy Cole made the most of some panic in the Chelsea defence to let fly from the edge of the area and the ball flew just over the crossbar.

Tomasz Radzinski was the next to benefit from an edgy start by the visitors but he too fired over.

They rallied bravely after the break as well and forced Petr Cech into some saves of his own, but Chris Coleman's side simply had no answer to Robben.

Man of the Match: Arjen Robben – The former PSV Eindhoven left-winger was top-class throughout, with his pace and dribbling skills putting the Cottagers on the back foot from the off.