Chelsea in seventh heaven as Mancini gets the blues

The Premier League swung back into action at the weekend with many clubs playing their first league games since December. There was no shortage of incident as Chelsea routed Sunderland, Roberto Mancini's was left feeling blue and even Spurs' 0-0 draw was full of excitement...

CHELSEA'S MAGNIFICENT SEVENThe African Cup of Nations was supposed to leave Chelsea bereft of attacking options - so how come they managed to put seven past Steve Bruce's hapless Sunderland side at Stamford Bridge?

The Blues turned on the style to simply destroy the visitors and if they had made it into double figures it would not have flattered them. There were outstanding goals from Forent Malouda and Ashley Cole, and Nicolas Anelka, who scored twice, even managed a smile.

With the title race looking like a three-horse race it could all come down to goal difference so this rout could prove vital come the spring.

Sunderland manager Steve Bruce accepted that his side had been totally outclassed. But there was one positive he could take from the game, it was only the second time Chelsea had conceded two goals at home in the Premier League this season.

MANCINI'S HONEYMOON IS OVER Roberto Mancini's dream start as Manchester City boss came to an abrupt halt at Goodison Park, where his team suddenly rediscovered the skittishness that lost Mark Hughes his job and capitulated to Everton.

City were not helped by an early injury to Roque Santa Cruz and a dire performance from his replacement, Robinho - who suffered the ignomy of being hauled off in the second half. But Everton were excellent and, but for Shay Given and the City crossbar, could have won even more handsomely. Everton's Marouane Fellaini was man of the match and capped his performance with a Zidane-like piroutte to rob Craig Bellamy of the ball in the closing stages.

City have dropped out of the top four, but at least their manager now knows the size of his challenge.

UNLUCKY LIVERPOOLWhen will Liverpool's luck change? What has Rafa Benitez done to bring this amount of misfortune down on his head? Even Evertonians may start feeling the odd pang of sympathy for the Reds after their latest nightmare.

After going 1-0 up in a dreadful game against Stoke they conceded an equaliser in the 90th minute and then hit the bar deep into stoppage time. To make matters they had two penalty shouts waved away - and poor old Lucas was even booked for diving after being hacked down in the box.

There are still questions to ask of Benitez though. Once again he overlooked the man he signed for £20m in the summer,  Alberto Aquilani, and elected to replace Steven Gerrard with Philipp Degen - who he picked up on a free in 2008.

UNITED FLATTER TO DECEIVENew Burnley boss Brian Laws made a losing start as his side went down 3-0 at Old Trafford, but it was a far from impressive performance from United.

The visitors, who famously beat United at Turf Moor earlier in the season, had plenty of chances to serve up another shock and there were rumblings of discontent around Old Trafford before Dimitar Berbatov opened the scoring after 65 minutes.

Once again United were without Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic at the back and appeared vulnerable. And Gary Neville looked every one of his 34 years - he was comprehensively skinned by David Nugent with the score at 0-0, only for the Burnley man to fire wide.

Even Fergie admitted his side were lucky. "Maybe the scoreline was a bit unfair on them," he said "Burnley missed good breakaways and it could have been embarrassing."

MYHILL - MY HERO If Hull stay up by a single point at the end of the season there's little doubt who should get the credit - keeper Boaz Myhill. The stopper produced a string of incredible saves to single-handedly keep Spurs at bay at White Hart Lane as the Tigers escaped with a 0-0 draw.

Keepers rarely get the plaudits they deserve but Myhill was outstanding and made at least six top-class saves. The pick of the bunch were two double stops, the first from Wilson Palacios and Robbie Keane in the first half and the second to deny Luca Modric and Keane again in the second. ·