Chelsea hammers City behind Drogba double

Soccer Betting Lines

10/27/2007 - London, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Didier Drogba scored two times as Chelsea pounded Manchester City, 6-0 on Saturday at Stamford Bridge.

City entered the match in third place, just three points behind league-leaders Arsenal. However, they were completely outclassed as Chelsea scored two times in the first half, with goals from Michael Essien and Drogba, and four more times after the restart.

Drogba, Joe Cole, Salomon Kalou, and Andriy Shevchenko each scored after the break for Chelsea, which moves from seventh into the top five with the win.

Chelsea created a number of corner kicks in the opening 15 minutes, but was unable to find a goal. However, Essien got the Blues on the scoreboard in the 16th minute after a nice ball from Frank Lampard.

The Chelsea midfielder had possession of the ball on the right and slid a quick pass in behind the City defense. Essien ran onto the ball and drove a perfect shot inside the far post to put Chelsea ahead 1-0.

The visitors tried to answer the goal with one of their own, and Martin Petrov almost found the equalizer in the 22nd minute when his long-range drive forced keeper Petr Cech to make a diving stop to keep the ball out.

City attempted to keep the pressure on, but they soon went down two goals after another great pass from Lampard.

After gaining possession in midfield, the Chelsea captain knocked a perfect pass into the path of Drogba, who got in on the keeper and fired his shot between the netminder's legs to double the lead.

Once again City looked to answer, and Stephen Ireland got a good look at goal from the top of the box but he pulled his effort wide of the left post.

Chelsea came out in the second half and put the game away with two more goals in the first 15 minutes.

Lampard continued to be dangerous and he was able to get off a shot from the penalty spot. Keeper Joe Hart got down and stopped the ball with his legs, but the rebound fell to Drogba, who slammed it home past the helpless keeper.

Drogba also played provider in the match, and he set up Cole five minutes later to give Chelsea a commanding 4-0 lead. The Ivory Coast international flicked a header wide to Cole on the right, and he took a big first touch into space. Cole then got to the ball just outside the box and banged a low shot into the right corner of the net.

The onslaught continued for the Blues in the 75th minute when Kalou scored from a tight angle after a nice ball from Essien, and Shevchenko capped the scoring in the 90th minute.

In other Premiership play on Saturday, Manchester United won its eighth consecutive EPL contest in 4-1 fashion over Middlesbrough, Olivier Kapo scored two times to lead Birmingham to a 3-2 win over Wigan, Reading beat Newcastle 2-1 on Shane Long's goal in the 84th minute, Sunderland earned a 1-1 draw with Fulham after Kenwyne Jones scored in the 86th minute and West Ham keeper Robert Green preserved a point for his team when he stopped a penalty kick from Portsmouth's Benjani Mwaruwari in stoppage time as the game ended 0-0.

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Big 12 Conference betting odds

Work left to do: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State

Texas joins Texas A&M and Kansas as locks after getting league win No. 11. Texas Tech greatly helped its own hopes and crippled OK State's with the two-point win Saturday. Is K-State the last reasonable hopeful? Could be an elimination match in Stillwater on Tuesday, at least for the Cowboys.

Work left to do:

Texas Tech [18-11 (7-7), RPI: 44, SOS: 12] A critical two-point win over OK State leaves the Red Raiders with Baylor and at Iowa State left. Get both and the Red Raiders likely are good to go. Get one and there could be some interesting comparisons with a K-State team that could finish two or three games "ahead" of them in the standings but doesn't have any of the quality wins Texas Tech has. Not a lot in nonconference play (against Arkansas in Little Rock being the best win, by far) to lean on.

Oklahoma State [18-9 (5-8), RPI: 50, SOS: 35] Still without a road win, the Cowboys now need to win two on the road just to get to .500 in conference play. It's hard to recall a team (OK, other than Clemson) falling so precipitously from lock status to almost certainly out of the NCAAs at this point. There are wins to be had in the last three, including a very big home game against K-State on Tuesday, but this team is reeling. Can you tell the pressure to win is getting to them with the way the final possession played out at Texas Tech? There are some good nonconference performances to lean on, specifically beating Missouri State and Syracuse on neutral floors and Pitt in OK City, but if the Pokes don't right this very, very soon, that won't be enough.

Kansas State [20-9 (9-5), RPI: 56, SOS: 96] It pays to be in the Big 12 North. The nine league wins are Colorado (twice), Missouri (twice), Iowa State (twice), Baylor, Nebraska and (a good one against) Texas. That helps explain the middling computer profile. The win over USC is nice, but the nonconference leaves a lot to be desired. The game at OK State in Stillwater on Tuesday is huge, as it could KO the Cowboys and leave K-State with a home date against Oklahoma with which to work.