Chelsea gunned down while Vettel is ‘red hot’ in ‘Vindalooland’

FOOTBALL – Chelsea suffered its heaviest PL defeat since losing 5-1 at Liverpool in 1996 and their worst at Stamford Bridge since the Merseysider’s 5-2 victory in 1989.

Last Saturday’s London derby between Chelsea and Arsenal could have ended 6-6, 7-6. 7-7, even 8-8, but in the end the best PL game so far this season, resulted in a 5-3 win for the Gunners for whom Robin van Persie (25 goals in 2011) scored a hat-trick.

Top-of-the-table Manchester City beat Wolves 3-1 to take their ten-match goal-tally to 36 – the best scoring start by a top flight team since Everton’s 35 in 1894-95.

There were also 3-1 wins for third-placed and unbeaten Newcastle thanks to Demba Ba’s treble (at Stoke), Spurs (v QPR) and Swansea (v Bolton); Liverpool (at WBA) and Fulham (at Wigan) both won 2-0 while Norwich-Blackburn and Sunderland-Villa drew. Southampton still lead the Championship, Charlton and Southend head Leagues One and Two and Rangers are nine points clear of Motherwell in the SPL.

In Spain’s La Liga, Lionel Messi scored a 17-minute hat-trick as second-placed Barcelona whipped Mallorca 5-0. Real Madrid won 1-0 at Real Sociedad to go top while Levante succumbed 2-0 at Osasuna.

The draw for the 5th round of the League Cup is: Arsenal-Manchester City, Chelsea-Liverpool, Manchester United-Crystal Palace and Cardiff-Blackburn.

There were a handful of upsets in this week’s Champions League Group matches.

Charlie Sheringham, son of Teddy, has signed for Bournemouth.

Who’ll succeed Sven Goran Eriksson as Leicester’s manager – Martin O’Neill, Billy Davies, Kevin Keegan, Roy Keane or someone else? Plymouth Argyle, out of administration, still prop up the Football League.

FORMULA 1 GP – NINETY five thousand fans saw World champion Sebastian Vettel win India’s inaugural Grand Prix at the Buddh Circuit near Delhi. He finished 8.43 seconds ahead of Jensen Button with Fernando Alonso third.

This was the German’s 11th F1 victory of 2011, the 21st of his career and his 35th podium finish in 79 races overall.

He’s also broke Nigel Mansell’s record of leading for most laps in a F1 campaign – superb! It’s Abu-Dhabi GP next, a week on Sunday

SPORTS SHORTS – England’s cricketers (121-4; Kevin Pietersen 53) restored some pride by beating India (120-9) in a 20/20 match in Kolkata.

Anita Adams, GB’s first boxing champion, won flyweight gold in Rotterdam.

England thrashed Wales 42-4 in their opening Four Nations Rugby League match last weekend.

Luke Donald topped the 2011 PGA prize money list; Rory McIlroy banked £1.24m for winning the Shanghai Masters and Sergio Garcia won Andalucia’s Open at Valderrama.

Jessica Ennis is British female ‘Athlete of the Year’

Shane Williams (Wales) has retired from international Rugby.

Welshman Geraint Thomas will not ride in next year’s Tour of France which starts 22 days before the Olympics. “I won’t recover in time” said Thomas.

Sunday’s MotoGP race in Valencia will be a solemn affair when all present will pay tribute to Honda rider Marco Simoncelli who was killed recently.

The St Louis Cardinals beat the Texas Rangers 6-2 in the decisive seventh game to win Baseball’s World Series.

Gary Lineker earns £500,000-a-year from the BBC while Alan Hansen gets £3,000 a minute for ‘talking’ on Match of the Day!

Congratulations to ex- Rugby World Cup winner Phil Vickery – BBC TV’s Celebrity Master Chef for 2011

DID YOU KNOW? – Worcestershire’s New Road ground is the smallest in county cricket, capacity 4,500. And they said it would never happen but it did… in the Australia-England Test in December 1979, it was Lillee ct Willey b Dilley 19.

Tel: 950 069 220 or email: tony_matthews@live.co.uk