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Nicolas Anelka scored his first hat-trick for Chelsea as they romped to a 5-0 victory over Sunderland at Stamford Bridge.

Anelka's treble plus goals from defender Alex and Frank Lampard were a fair return from a match that Luiz Felipe Scolari's side dominated from start to finish.

Alex - lining up in the Chelsea defence in place of the injured Ricardo Carvalho - opened the scoring on 27 minutes when Joe Cole's shot was saved by goalkeeper Marton Fulop, but the Hungarian could not stop the rebound running to the Brazilian unmarked at the far post to tap in his first goal of the season.

Chelsea only had to wait another three minutes before their lead was doubled thanks to a very similar goal. This time it was Frank Lampard who crossed from the right with Alex and Anelka both in the box, and it was the Frenchman who got the final touch to finish from close range. While Alex - as for the first goal - was level with the last defender, Anelka had just strayed into an offside position when Lampard's ball came in, but the goal stood.

The title-chasing Blues saw in half-time in imperious fashion, and the Sunderland players barely touched the ball in the closing minutes of a half in which they had barely 30 per cent of the possession.

That spell ended with Chelsea's third in injury time when Malouda's square pass from the left found an unmarked Anelka at the far post to tap in for his seventh of the season.

Sunderland had begun the game with a totally new striker force, as Kenwyne Jones completed his return from injury with his first start of the season. He was joined in attack by 18-year-old Martyn Waghorn, who was making his first start since the 4-0 Boxing Day defeat at the hands of Manchester United last season.

Despite having as sparse a first-half as Jones, Waghorn was replaced at half-time as manager Roy Keane brought on El-Hadji Diouf.

That did little to stem the blue tide, however, and just five minutes into the second period Joe Cole beat George McCartney for pace down the right and chipped a ball over to Lampard at the far post, and the England international duly headed in his 100th domestic goal for Chelsea.

The rout was completed four minutes later when Malouda again provided an assist as his cut-back pass from the left was struck by Anelka. Fulop managed to block the initial effort but the ball looped into the air and dropped into the net with the keeper scrambling to get back in time to clear.

Despite not adding to the scoreline any further, Chelsea maintained their stranglehold on the game, with only substitute Djibril Cisse having a worthy effort on goal in the second half, and his strike went wide of the mark.

Scolari used the huge advantage his starting eleven had amassed to bring on Didier Drogba for his first appearance in a month, and also to bring on Brazilian utility man Mineiro for his debut following his arrival on a free transfer in September.

In a game played in almost torrential rain, Finnish midfielder Teemu Tainio was the only man to go into referee Martin Atkinson's book all afternoon, for a foul on Frank Lampard as the former Tottenham man tried in vain to mark him out of the match, but there was simply no stopping him or any of his team-mates.

Tony Mabert / Eurosport