Chelsea coach Luiz Filipe Scolari has showered praise on Salomon Kalou for his splendid performance in the Carling Cup game against Portsmouth.
Kalou scored the fourth goal and created two others in the game at Fratton Park, which Chelsea eventually won 4-0.
Kalou had earlier scored the crucial equalizer in the Premiership match against Manchester United and denied the Devils a much-needed victory in the final stages of the game.
Scolari insisted on the fact that Kalou performed under a lesser fitness level because he had gone for Olympics. He was having a different training and diet session with his national team.
The scoring opened in the early part of the first half, when Frank Lampard sent home a spot kick resulting from a carefree tackle on Michael Ballack by Nadri Belhadj.
Florent Malouda then scored the second goal after an assist by Kalou just before the half time.
The third one, again was a Kalou assist when out-of-form goalie David James mishandled Kalou’s cross, giving a chance to Lampard, which he grabbed with a ‘thank you’ to the keeper.
Kalou then scored the last goal of the night, as he got the ball when he was unmarked in the City box.
This was the second ‘big’ defeat in a row for Pompey, the first being the 0-6 snubbing away to Manchester City on Sunday. It means that Portsmouth have conceded ten goals in two matches.
In other matches, Manchester City were defeated by Brighton 3-5 on penalties, Aston Villa lost to QPR 1-0 and Tottenham got their first domestic win of the season over a troubled Newcastle 2-1.
