Chelsea beat Blackburn Rovers 3-2

Blackburn:

Chelsea unveiled their latest multi-million pound signing on Sunday, with midfielder Scott Parker in the starting line-up for the Blues' English Premier League game against Blackburn Rovers. The home side made a fantastic start to the match though and Carlo Cudicini had already made a fine save before captain Gary Flitcroft gave Rovers a third minute lead. But Blackburn would lose their advantage in the 25th minute after Adrian Mutu and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink combined well on the right wing. Dutchman Hasselbaink burst into the penalty area and centred for Frank Lampard, who slotted the ball inside of Brad Friedel's left hand post to level the score at one-all. Lampard, who is currently playing the best football of his career, took his tally of league goals for the season to seven, ten minutes later. Emmanuel Petit picked out the England international in the midst of Blackburn's tattered defence and Lampard finished coolly to make it 2-1. The former West Ham player would go close to netting a hat trick in the 80th minute after he was left unmarked to meet a cross from substitute Jesper Gronkjaer, but goalkeeper Friedel managed to claw the ball off his goal line and kept Blackburn in the game. Graham Souness' side looked to have equalised earlier in the second half, but substitute Paul Gallagher's goal was disallowed for offside. The young Scotsman would make a telling contribution in the 87th minute though, levelling the score after Chelsea's defence had failed to clear Tugay's hopeful long ball. Relegation threatened Blackburn were mere minutes away from gaining a valuable point, but Chelsea's Glen Johnson scored a fine individual goal two minutes before full-time and Chelsea would win 3-2. Claudio Ranieri's team stay in third place in the Premiership standings despite the victory, but they are well placed to claim their first top flight title for 49 years. (AP)