Chelsea cruised to a comfortable victory over Hertha Berlin and claimed top spot in Group H without hitting top gear, thanks to first-half goals from Didier Deschamps and Albert Ferrer.

It was a night of firsts for the foreign pair as they both opened their accounts for Chelsea. Amazingly, considering his glorious spell at Juventus, this was Frenchman Deschamps' first strike in 73 European matches.

Well worth waiting for, though. His swerving, long-range effort had the Stamford Bridge faithful out of their seats in raptures, so sweet was the shot.

But a great night in SW6 was soured near the end by the needless red card collected by frustrated 10million summer signing, Chris Sutton. Cruising at 2-0 up, Chelsea hardly needed the striker to earn a second booking - and definite suspension from the first two games of the next stage.

Boss Gianluca Vialli was forced into a reshuffle in defence before the start of the match as Frank Leboeuf hadnt fully recovered from an ankle injury and could only make the substitutes bench.

The Italian showed his attacking intentions to play for the win and not settle for a draw by deciding to employ the attacking trio of Gianfranco Zola, Sutton and Tore Andre Flo together. It was the first time the former- Blackburn man had started a match with the Norwegian. Shame, then, he failed to finish it with him.

It was Hertha Berlin who produced the more assertive start as Chelsea came to terms with their new system leaving them light in the midfield. The absence of Leboeuf in the defence was highlighted after just two minutes when Anthony Sanneh rose above everyone in the penalty area to meet a right-wing free kick but couldnt keep his header down.

It took until the ninth minute before Chelsea had their first shot at goal after some quick and neat passes in the midfield allowed Dan Petrescu to try a shot from a central position but he pulled it wide.

It was an ominous sign as within a minute the Londoners had taken the lead thanks to an outstanding effort from World Cup winner Didier Deschamps. He won the ball in midfield and let fly with a powerful swerving 25-yard shot that flew past a helpless Gabor Kiraly into the far corner.

It was Chelsea now in the ascendancy and they came very close to doubling their lead straight from the re-start. Flo yet again betrayed his six-foot five-inch size to demonstrate quick feet and clever close control to shoot agonisingly across the face of goal that eluded Sutton at the far post.

Zola, in his floating role behind the big two strikers, was restricted to causing damage from his speciality free-kicks that had whip and bend on them but thankfully for Berlin failed to find the net.

Chelsea had managed to regain control of the midfield thanks to another inspiring performance from captain Dennis Wise who nearly found his name on the scoresheet in European football for a third time this season. He hit a shot early and nearly caught Kiraly off guard who managed to produce a good save.

Chelsea, still playing within themselves, effectively wrapped up the match when Albert Ferrer opened his Chelsea acount in the 43rd minute. Unsurprisingly, Wise was the architect picking out the Spaniard's run into the area, and he fired in to give Chelsea a two-goal cushion.

Concentration would have been Viallis message at half-time to his players but they seemed to switch off in the 51st minute. Sebastian Deisler, one of Germanys hottest young prospects, burst into the penalty area but was unlucky to see his angled shot hit the far post before Chelsea cleared the danger.

Chelsea responded by nearly scoring a third when Flo beat the offside trap, took the ball onto his left foot but his cross come shot only found empty space. However, Chelsea won it back immediately and Zola found Petrescu with a delightful chip, the Romanians cross found Dennis Wise but he could only direct his header straight at the keeper.

Deschamps was getting a taste for goals and he nearly doubled his tally in European football after a dreadful kick from Kiraly fell straight to the French captain who shot first time from 40 yards forcing the keeper to retreat to his line to make the save.

Then came a moment of sheer stupidity from Sutton, which, quite apart from damaging his club's Champions League bid, hardly bodes well for his hopes of making the England team against Scotland a week no Saturday. He may have had a very ineffective evening but his heavy challenge, with elbow catching Kjetil Rekdal, means he will be even less useful against the Blues' next Champions League opponents three weeks from now. They learn who they play on Friday.

One footnote for the evening was that victory came in the presence of Graham Rix, back on the bench alongside his loyal boss for the first time since his release from prison last month.

Chelsea: De Goey, Ferrer, Hogh (Leboeuf 66), Desailly (Lambourde 86), Babayaro, Petrescu, Deschamps, Wise, Zola (Poyet 64), Flo, Sutton.
Subs Not Used: Cudicini, Ambrosetti, Morris, Forssell.
Sent Off: Sutton (90).
Booked: Sutton.
Goals: Deschamps 11, Ferrer 44.

Hertha Berlin: Kiraly, Rekdal, Van Burik, Helmer (Schmidt 58), Sanneh, Deisler, Wosz (Kostantinidis 45), Sverrisson, Michalke, Daei, Preetz (Aracic 45).
Subs Not Used: Fiedler, Herzog, Neuendorf, Thom.