The league leaders had to dig deep and fight for over 100 minutes on Wednesday factoring in stoppage time, but Chelsea left East London with a hard-fought 1-0 victory over West Ham to maintain their five-point cushion atop the Premier League. The difference in the game was a first half goal from Eden Hazard, who headed home after bit of beautiful build-up play between Cesc Fàbregas and Ramires.
After a successful experiment in Sunday’s League Cup Final, José Mourinho chose to play centre back Kurt Zouma in the midfield again as Nemanja Matić saw out the last game of his two-match ban from the FA. The manager made two changes from Sunday’s lineup, slotting Thibaut Courtois back in goal and reinserting Oscar into the midfield in the No. 10 role between Hazard and Ramires. With the Blue Kenyan playing on the right wing, Fàbregas played deeper in the midfield alongside Zouma.
West Ham was playing with purpose early on, but Chelsea nearly opened the scoring in the seventh minute when Diego Costa was put through in front of goal by Oscar. After a nice bit of build-up Oscar found Chelsea’s danger man in the middle, but Costa was unable to convert after an awkward bounce only allowed him to get a shin on the ball resulting in a shot over the bar.
The Irons created several chances in the first half but were ultimately unable to put anything past Courtois. In the 18th minute the Belgian made a point-blank save on a shot from Cheikhou Kouyaté after Oscar was unable to clear the ball off a West Ham corner. Courtois was called into action once again in the 36th minute when Carl Jenkinson crossed in from the right and found the head of an unmarked Diafra Sakho directly in front of goal. The Senegalese forward was unable to get the necessary direction on his header, however, sending the ball downward and directly into Courtois, who did well to react and save with a deflection before Zouma cleared the danger.
Although Chelsea were being pressured by the Hammers, the Blues were finding success on the counter attack throughout the opening half. The deadlock was broken in the 22nd minute when Branislav Ivanović cleared the ball out of the Chelsea box to ignite a counter, which was finished in style with a nice bit of linkup play from Chelsea’s midfielders. Fàbregas received the ball from Hazard in the center of the pitch and immediately played Ramires into the box on the right side where the Brazilian crossed and located Hazard, who had darted toward goal after touching the ball to Cesc and put CFC ahead with an easy headed finish past Adrián. Hazard may have been fractionally off-side, but the advantage of the frontman worked in Chelsea’s favour.
Chelsea probably should have extended their lead to two goals in the 36th minute but Costa, who was played ahead into a one-on-one with the keeper by Hazard, took a moment too long to pull the trigger. Jenkinson took advantage of Costa’s hesitation and made an excellent tackle from behind to squash the danger for West Ham and keep the score at 1-0 going into half-time.
The second half saw Chelsea absorb more pressure from the Irons. After firing wide in the 50th minute, Sakho had a low shot saved by the sweeping left arm of Courtois following a scramble for the ball in the box. Courtois was busy throughout the half, coming up with several big saves – many of which came against Sakho – to keep Chelsea’s one-goal lead intact. The only time that that the big Belgian was unable to corral a shot, he was aided in a big way by Gary Cahill, who made a sliding block on Sakho’s shot attempt off the rebound at the near post in minute 72. Courtois made a spectacular one-handed claim on a cross in the closing minutes, once again showing off his stellar ability to patrol aerial threats in the box.
The Blues were unlucky not to extend their advantage on a number of occasions, most notably on back-to-back chances for Ramires. In the 56th minute, the Brazilian was played forward by Hazard on another lightning quick counter attack and was unfortunate to hit the inside of the post after making a slick cutback to the inside and firing across the face of the keeper. Moments later in the 58th minute, Ramires was once again denied, this time by a stellar foot save from Adrián.
Chelsea missed yet another opportunity to put the game away in stoppage time when Hazard opted to pass to Willian rather than shoot in a one-on-one situation. Willian, a 74th-minute substitute, got a good chance but was blocked on his shot attempt before the Blues managed to ride out the rest of the injury time.
West Ham have now failed to win in 10 of their last 11 league outings this season, and the Hammers have not scored against Chelsea in their last five meetings. Mourinho remains undefeated against West Ham in Premier League play, winning six times and drawing once in seven career matches.
The Blues will now take a week to regroup before returning to action next Wednesday, March 11, for their Champions League second leg against Paris Saint-Germain at Stamford Bridge.
For more from Scott, follow him on Twitter @ScottCrumbly.
