20/09/2003  Wolves 0 Chelsea 5
 
Chelsea boss Claudio Ranieri revelled in a big vote of confidence after Hernan Crespo led the five-goal rout of Wolves at >The visiting fans chanted "We don't need Eriksson" during the crushing win, in response to recent media rumours that the England coach had been approached to replace him at Stamford Bridge.

Ranieri joked afterwards: "The fans are very intelligent!"

He added: "I know very well that everything is rubbish. I am not under pressure and the only job I have now is how to motivate my players. Of course the directors have spoken to me but it doesn't matter because I know it is rubbish."

Ranieri made no fewer than seven changes to the side which won in Prague in midweek and their class told against a home side whose winless streak has now stretched to six games.

Beleaguered Wolves boss Dave Jones suffered the somewhat soul-destroying sight of seeing £17million man Crespo introduced as a 65th-minute substitute with the visitors already 3-0 up.

The Argentinian scored with his first touch of the game by rounding off a Damien Duff cross.

And one minute from time he completed the one-sided result with the fifth which was enough to send Ranieri's men temporarily to the Barclaycard Premiership summit.

Crespo's dramatic introduction in place of first-half scorer Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink wiped out memories of his three misses in Prague and Ranieri added: "This is a striker's life.

"Sometimes he has lots of chances and doesn't score, and today he had two chances and scored them both.

"This was a banana skin today and I am very pleased with my players' attitude. I am an ambitious man and it is important to keep building. When we are building and winning, everything is OK."

From the 17th minute when Frank Lampard struck a superb left-foot opener from the edge of the box the result was never in doubt.

But Jones did not use the bank balance as an excuse, admitting afterwards: "It is frustrating and annoying. We never broke their rhythm and the quality of our final ball was not good enough.

"Next time I am going to ask my players to do the opposite of what I want them to do, because that is what is happening at the moment."

Jones could only recall Henri Camara and hand Joey Gudjonsson his full debut while Ranieri boasted Emmanuel Petit and Joe Cole alongside Crespo on the bench.

That giant chasm in quality was obvious from the third minute when Glen Johnson's cross narrowly eluded Eidur Gudjohnsen and the impressive Lampard.

The inevitable second goal finally arrived in the 36th minute when Hasselbaink slid a low first-time cross past Oakes.

Duff converted a point-blank Gudjohnsen cross in the 53rd minute - his first goal for the club - before Crespo finished things off leaving Wolves still without a win and goalless in their last seven hours and 49 minutes of Premiership football.

Their only chances of any note came in the 79th minute when Paul Butler and Steffen Iversen rattled the crossbar in quick succession.

But while all around are writing them off, Jones insists his present crop of players can still survive.

He said: "I have never given up in my life and that is what I won't accept from anybody at this football club. If they do they can get out.

"I know I've got a dressing room of players who are low on confidence but they have got to fight and scrap.

"My message to the players is that this club has spent too many years getting to this stage and are we just going to chuck it in? I am not going to chuck it in, and neither are the players."