Chelsea entertain to claim home record

Jose Mourinho's men were given a scare when Mikael Forssell opened the scoring and Olivier Kapo levelled before the break, but Essien's second-half strike into the top corner meant Chelsea have gone 64 league games undefeated at Stamford Bridge.

They go one match ahead of Liverpool's efforts at Anfield between 1978 and 1981, although Mourinho insisted before the game that anything less than a win would not be worth celebrating.

Birmingham's opener came from the Finland striker, although there was barely a celebration against the club that gave him a chance to shine in the Premier League. Gary McSheffrey whipped in a free-kick which Liam Ridgewell, skipper for the day in Damien Johnson's absence, flicked on. There was no time for Forssell to react but his instinctive header wrong-footed Petr Cech.

Shaun Wright-Phillips was at the heart of Chelsea's best attacks before Birmingham's opener, firing wide when Pizarro had weighted a ball through for him.

The England winger and Malouda were given license to cut inside from the flanks, and it was Malouda who set Wright-Phillips racing down the right. The low pull-back was met crisply by Peru striker Pizarro, although goalkeeper Colin Doyle should have kept the effort out.

Chelsea edged ahead on the half-hour mark. Frank Lampard was fed on the edge of the area, with his flick finding Salomon Kalou who scooped the ball through for Malouda to sidefoot home.

However, Chelsea were stunned in the 36th minute when Kapo drifted in from the left, bundled his way past Glen Johnson and unleashed an unstoppable drive into the top corner with his left foot.

The entertainment did not stop after the break and the hosts were ahead in the 50th minute, with Wright-Phillips finding Essien on the edge of the area and the Ghana midfielder finding the top corner, although Doyle got a hand to the curling effort and again perhaps might have done better.

Didier Drogba made a subsitute appearance and almost caught Doyle off his line with a volley from the halfway line but the ambitious effort drifted wide. The striker finished the game with his head bandaged following a clash.