Kalou 41, 52

Chelsea cruised to their third straight Champions League Group D win against an Atletico side which lived up to it’s reputation for being good going forward but poor at the back.

The visitors, struggling in the lower reaches of La Liga, were lively in the early stages and again in the last ten minutes.

But in the interim it was a cakewalk for Carlo Ancelotti’s men, who rarely had to exceed the workmanlike to run out convincing winners.

The Blues were once again without the suspended Didier Drogba, and dropped defender Ricardo Carvalho after an out-of-sorts display in Chelsea’s EPL defeat at Aston Villa on Saturday.

But Drogba’s replacement, fellow-Ivory Coast international Salomon Kalou,  recovered from missing a sitter in the opening quarter to grab Chelsea’s first two goals, his second effectively ending the game as a contest, seven minutes after half-time.

Chelsea keeper Petr Cech saved former Manchester United striker Diego Forlan’s near-post header and a long-range effort from Sergio Aguero in the first ten minutes, as Atletico started brightly.

But Kalou missed a glorious opportunity to put Chelsea ahead on the quarter-hour mark when he side-footed wide of a near-empty goal from Michael Ballack’s pass.

He made amends on 40 minutes, with a more accurate close-range finish into the roof of the net from Ashley Cole’s left-wing cross.

And he doubled Chelsea’s advantage when he nodded home Frank Lampard’s far-post corner as the Atletico defence were caught flat-footed.

Lampard took advantage of some more dozy defending from the visitors on 69 minutes.

Their central defenders were still organising themselves as he picked up possession from a quickly-taken free-kick and drove the ball into the bottom left-hand corner of Sergio Asenio’s net.

The scoring was rounded off in stoppage time when Luis Perea diverted substitute Florent Malouda’s inswinging free-kick into his own net in the second minute of stoppage time to leave Atletico Madrid with a heavy defeat.