Football: Jimmy stars as Blues cruise

CHELSEA boss Claudio Ranieri was full of praise for Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, who put thoughts of Barcelona out of his mind to help his team back to winning ways in the League.

The Dutch hitman has been linked with a move to the Catalan giants this weekend but he proved his importance to Chelsea with an all- action display.

Hasselbaink put his team on the way to a comprehensive victory in this London derby by earning and converting a penalty inside the first three minutes.

William Gallas capped a blistering start by putting the home side two up in 11 minutes and further goals by Eidur Gudjohnsen and Graeme Le Saux completed the rout.

But Blues manager Ranieri singled out Hasselbaink for special praise as the striker ended a six-match goal drought - indeed he could well have helped himself to a hat-trick on another day.

Ranieri said: "It was very important for Jimmy to score a goal because he is a striker, and like all good strikers he needs to be getting goals.

"But as well as scoring, he fought very well for the whole match so I was very pleased with his performance.

"He works very hard - in the Cup against Middlesbrough last week when we went down to 10 men and he was the lone forward he still tried and fought for the whole match."

Ranieri was delighted that his side had made light work of the appalling Stamford Bridge pitch, which will be dug up and replaced today.

And he was also pleased to see Chelsea's Charlton hoodoo - which saw them lose four successive games against their London rivals prior to this season - finally laid to rest.

The Chelsea boss said: "In the past Charlton have been our bogey team but this season they are not - my players concentrated fully on getting the result. Now we will look forward to the visit to Manchester United next Saturday.

"Charlton played with fantastic spirit and they fought all the way. But we continued to push allthroughout the match. "Even when we were 4-1 up we still continued to press and tried to score again, so I I was delighted with the performance."

Ranieri added: "I was worried when John Terry asked to come off midway through the first half, but Emmanuel Petit was fantastic and Jody Morris came on and did really well.

"We don't know what the matter is with John but he will be checked tomorrow - he seems to have a problem with his back.

"It could have had something to do with the pitch - it was very difficult for the players to keep their balance on the surface."

Chelsea striker Gudjohnsen - whose partnership with Hasselbaink was once again in operation and working to devastating effect - told how the players tried to put the pitch problem out of their minds.

The Icelander said: "We had a look at the pitch before the game and we knew it was bad. We just decided that we had to attack and try to pass the ball like we usually do.

"I've struggled to get into the team in the early part of the season, but it was nice to be back in and playing alongside Jimmy."

Gudjohnsen continued: "Full credit to Gianfranco Zola, though, for the way he has played this season because he's kept me out of the side.

"It's not been easy for me after having such a good season last year, but I got injured at the start of this season.

"I just tried to do what I could to get my act together and it's great to be back and scoring goals.

"All I know at the moment is that I have a contract with Chelsea and I'll just carrying on until I'm told anything different."

Alan Curbishley was far from happy with the decision of referee Mike Dean to award the early penalty for Chris Powell's push on Hasselbaink.

The Charlton manager said: "Chris Powell says he didn't touch Hasselbaink but the referee gave it. I didn't think it was a penalty from where I was in the stands

"As soon as he gave it I thought it was harsh and I must say I was disappointed with the decision."

But Curbishley refused to blame the state of the surface for his team's disappointing display which saw their eight-match unbeaten run halted in emphatic fashion.

He added: "There was a lot of talk about the pitch and we brought the players here on Friday when we brought the kit - perhaps the state of the pitch got to them for a day.

"I wasn't especially happy with the pitch, but I can't claim it was the reason we lost the game. However, I do think that if you play on it regularly then it can help your game.

"But we can't afford to let the sort of goals in that we did and hope to survive - and we could have let in a few more in the last 15 minutes.

"We took a good beating and when they brought on Zola and Zenden late on I feared the worst. At least we did not get smashed."

He added: "We've had a great run in recent weeks and if something like this was going to happen, we might as well get it out of the way in one go.

"I think we've let the fans down because they're not used to that sort of performance and now we need to do everything possible to put it right next week.