Elano celebrates after scoring one of his two goals, on Tuesday

Calcutta/ Chennai: John Mendoza and Elano were in the mood as they starred for Chennaiyin FC in their 5-1 victory over Mumbai City FC, at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Chennai, on Tuesday.

Mendoza (40th and 44th) and Elano (ninth and 69th) scored a couple of goals with Jeje Lalpekhlua (26th) also adding his name on the scoresheet. Syed Rahim Nabi did pull one back at the death for the visitors which only served as a consolation goal. Elano with five goals is now the highest scorer of the Hero Indian Super League (ISL).

Chennaiyin FC player-cum-manager Marco Materazzi decided it was time to introduce himself instead of Dhanachandra Singh after the 4-1 Delhi drubbing as he made five changes.

Shilton Paul replaced Gennaro Bracigliano in goal as Jairo Suarez joined Materazzi with skipper Bojan Djordjic sitting out. The forward line saw a revamp as Jeje Lalpekhlua and John Mendoza played instead of Balwant Singh and Bruno Pelissari as Bernard Mendy captained the side this time out.

For Mumbai City, the big news was Nicolas Anelka and Syed Rahim Nabi starting in place of Nadong Bhutia and Tiago Ribiero respectively as the suspended Pavel Cmovs’ replaced by Raju Gaikwad in defense.

Peter Reid’s side surprisingly starting with 6 Indians and 5 foreign players with the sole purpose of putting the dreadful 2-0 loss to NorthEast United behind them.

Materazzi surprisingly played in a holding midfield in front of Mendy and Silvestre with Gouramangi and Suarez manning the flanks.

The game’s first real chance fell to Chennaiyin in the seventh minute with Suarez clipping the ball over Mendoza, whose silky first touch took him past Nabi on the left. The Colombian dribbled into the penalty box and laid it up for Elano who fired over.

But the referee pulled play back for Manuel Friedrich’s kick on Mendoza, with the resulting penalty culminating in Elano’s fourth goal in as many games.

The second came soon after, with Elano the creator this time. The Brazilian’s delightful lob found Jeje clear on the left, with the Mohun Bagan striker lashing the ball home with his left foot.

With five minutes to go to half-time, Chennaiyin FC made it 3-0 with the softest of goals. Elano’s free-kick was made a meal of by Paul as Mendoza pounced from a yard out.

Three-nil became 4-0 in no time as Mendoza notched up his brace with a minute of first half play to go. The striker beat the offside trap with consummate easy as he got onto Khabra’s chip, lobbed Paul and finished with aplomb.

The best of the five was Elano’s second and CFC’s fifth.

Mendoza won a free-kick and Elano urged the crowd on as he stepped up to take it on Mumbai City’s right flank, just outside their penalty area. The Brazilian smashed the ball right across the face of goal as the swerve took it into the bottom corner of Subrata Paul’s goal.

Mumbai were unable to contend with the magical Elano, whose mazy run into the box outfoxed three defenders. He cut back in and tried to prod the ball home, which trickled just wide of Paul’s right hand post.

After the match, Elano said he was happy with the performance. “I am very happy. It makes me very emotional to play in front of so many fans.

“I try to always do the best for my team. I am delighted that we bounced back so well after the Delhi Dynamos game.

When asked about his free-kicks he said: I practice free-kicks from different positions in training so all that hard work is paying off. The atmosphere is great in the dressing room.

Elano also praised the runs of Mendoza and Jeje. “It would have been impossible to assist the them without their brilliant runs. In fact all the players supported each other. It was a team effort.”