Chelsea prepared for their Champions League clash against Barcelona in the best possible fashion as they cruised to a comfortable 3-1 win over Fulham on Saturday.

The game started at a break neck speed as the Blues were in front in the opening minute as Didier Drogba flicked on a Florent Malouda cross into the path of Nicolas Anelka and the Chelsea striker made no mistake to open the scoring in the 51st second.

However Fulham recovered well and replied in the best possible fashion three minutes later Erik Nevland raced on to meet Danny Murphy's cross before slotting the ball past Petr Cech to pull his side back on level terms.

Chelsea were back in front six minutes later with Drogba once again turning creator as his cross was smashed home by Malouda from close range. After a terrific start, the game quietened somewhat though Chelsea were the dominant team and should have had extended the lead but Drogba's goal was wrongly ruled out for offside while Frank Lampard narrowly missed the target.

The Ivory Coast striker was not to be denied though and he put the result to bed eight minutes into the second half as he raced past Mark Schwarzer before slotting home Anelka's pass into an empty net to score Chelsea's third goal of the game.