Chelsea have extended their lead at the top of the table to seven points thanks to first half goals from Diego Costa and Eden Hazard as the Blues saw off a ten-man West brom at Stamford bridge.
Jose Mourinho’s side’s unbeaten run continues, but he may have hoped to have seen his hide convert more goals after the visitors played the final 60 minutes a man down following Claudio Yacob’s red card.
The visitors made four changes from the defeat to Newcastle with Claudio Yacob, Chris Baird, Craig Gardner and Stephane Sessegnon entering the fray.
First-half strikes from Costa and Hazard were enough for Jose Mourinho’s side, as Ben Foster’s heroics keep the score down at Stamford Brid
The visitors made four changes from the defeat to Newcastle with Claudio Yacob, Chris Baird, Craig Gardner and Stephane Sessegnon entering the fray.
It soon became apparent that the rest had done Costa’s notoriously iffy hamstrings the world of good, as the Spain striker took advantage some extremely lax defending, receiving a flick from Oscar in the box before chesting it down and volleying past Ben Foster to open the scoring.
Jose Mourinho’s men doubled their advantage half-way through the first half via an outrageous set piece that saw a low corner dummied into the box before Eden Hazard ghosted in to nutmeg Foster.
To compound the Baggies’ misery, they were down to ten men five minutes later, when Claudio Yacob was given his marching orders for a reckless challenge on Costa.
At half-time it was looking like it was a question of how many Chelsea would score in the second half, but while the home fans waited for the floodgates to open, Baggies ‘keeper Ben Foster set about having one of his best games in a West Brom shirt, pulling off numerous instinctive saves, few better than a brave smothering of Eden Hazard with 20 minutes left.
Add in a series of missed chances – Nemanja Matic was guilty of spooning an effort over the bar a minute after the break – and the Baggies were able to keep the score respectable.
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