Chelsea 4-0 Wolves match report: The Daily Mirror verdict

It took just one touch, one shimmy, for the Chelsea fans inside Stamford Bridge to start thinking Gael Kakuta may be worth the cost.

By the time the French teenager replaced Nicolas Anelka with half an hour left, Carlo Ancelotti’s side were already guaranteed three more points to cement their hold on top spot and a record 12th successive home win.

The absence of Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba and Michael Ballack had not mattered as Wolves displayed all the resistance of a chocolate fireguard, while Chelsea were en route to completing more than 16 hours without conceding at the Bridge.

But as Ancelotti shook Kakuta’s hand to wish him good luck on his Chelsea bow, the buzz of expectation was unavoidable.

This was the boy whose controversial capture is set to land Chelsea with a two-window transfer ban, the wing ace Ancelotti described as the best player of his age he had ever seen.

It was tough billing to live up to, but when Kakuta’s first touch saw him destroy Richard Stearman with a dummy and side-step which would have been relished by Jeremy Guscott in his prime, the intake of breath was audible.

For the rest of his cameo Kakuta looked increasingly at home, giving Italian boss Ancelotti reason to believe he may not have to dip into his spending pot too deeply in January after all.

While many were wondering how being at the eye of the media storm may have taken its toll, the team-mate who knows better than anybody what Kakuta went through revealed that nobody at the club needs convincing of his talents

John Obi Mikel’s controversial arrival at Chelsea, via a £16million tug-of-war with Manchester United and allegations of kidnapping from Lyn Oslo, means the Nigerian has more than a touch of sympathy for a player still facing his own four-month ban. But Mikel suggested that first taste of the big-time would prove the launchpad for a major Chelsea career.

Mikel said: “You could see when he came on how relieved he was, how free he was.

“He’s hungry, he wants to play, he wants to show the fans what he’s got and I think he did that.”

Mikel added: “I spoke to him about what was going on because he knew what had happened to me. I tried to tell him just to calm down and to continue working hard in training, and hopefully everything was going to be fine.

“That’s what Gael has to do. But I believe in him. He is a fantastic player.

“In fact, in terms of skill he is the best at the club. He does things in training that come naturally, he doesn’t have to force them. And the only way to stop him is to kick him!”

Not that Wolves, effectively beaten when Florent Malouda advanced to fire home seconds after David Edwards was two inches too slow to convert a Matt Jarvis cross, got close enough to kick anyone.

Mick McCarthy’s side paid the price for leaving huge gaps for Chelsea to exploit, shoddy defending allowing Michael Essien to head home and then fire through Wayne Hennessy, who also made a mess of Chelsea’s fourth, Joe Cole’s first goal for 13 months.

Cole is relishing the chance to play behind the front two strikers at Chelsea – a role he must fight for against rejuvenated Portuguese veteran Deco.

“I love it in the middle,” said Cole. “I think the main focus is to perform, wherever you are playing.

“Good players can play in several positions and I found I had the ability to play right, left or centre and that’s because I can do a broad range of things for the team – cross the ball, pass it through the middle, beat a man.

“Because of these things I have tended to get moved around a little bit. But now I’ve got back in the centre, which is more natural to me, I’m hoping to cement that place and make it my own.

“I don’t think I am far away from being back to my old self, which is good, and I’ve just got to keep myself level-headed about everything.”

It could have been more than 4-0, as McCarthy confessed when he saluted “arguably the champions-elect” while Ancelotti was delighted at the first glimpses of Chelsea’s possible future.

Ancelotti added: “To play like we did is important because it gives us more confidence ahead of the Arsenal game next week.”

Mikel believes Chelsea can turn the title battle into a two-horse race with Manchester United. “We have to beat Arsenal – then we will be 11 points ahead of them and that is a massive gap,” he said.

“I think this period is a really massive period for Chelsea, especially with us having the African players going away in the New Year for the African Cup of Nations.

“We just have to make sure that we pick up the points now.

‘I think the next few weeks will really determine who is going to win it.”

Chelsea: Cech 7; Belletti 6, Alex 7, Terry 8, A Cole 7; Mikel 7; Essien 8, Malouda 8 (Matic, 69, 6), J Cole 6; Kalou 5 (Borini, 78, 6), Anelka 7 (Kakuta, 59, 7)

Wolves: Hennessy 4; Stearman 5, Craddock 5, Berra 6; Halford 5, Edwards 5, Castillo 4 (Kightly, 53, 5), Henry 5, Surman 5; Jarvis 6, Ebanks-Blake 5 (Keogh, 62, 5)