Chelsea reinstated their 10 point lead at the top of the Premier League with a relatively comfortable 2-1 win over West Ham at the London Stadium.
Chelsea almost created a chance from the kick off. The ball was played back to David Luiz who launched an almost perfect pass to Pedro who was just unable to take control of the ball inside the West Ham box.
Andy Carroll suffered a nasty clash of heads with Victor Moses early on but picked himself off the deck to continue.
West Ham gave as much as they got for the opening 20 minutes with Mark Noble tackling like a man possessed.
However the home side have only themselves to blame for allowing Chelsea to break and after Noble elected to play the ball short instead of pumping it into the box when all their big men were waiting for a cross.
N’Golo Kante intercepted the ball and Hazard and Pedro took off with some stylish interplay before the Belgian rounded Darren Randolph in the West Ham goal and slotted the ball into the net.
Chelsea should have doubled their lead in the 40th minute after Hazard again broke down the line only for Costa to miss the ball after the Belgian squared it. Moses’ effort was then blocked by Cresswell before Pedro had an effort saved by Randolf.
Picture by: Simon Cooper/PA Wire/PA Images
Diego Costa added a second from a corner early in the second half which took the fight out of West Ham.
Costa nearly added a third only for a spectacular save from close range by Randolph, who pushed his effort around the post.
Lanzini pulled one back for the home side in added time but it was too little, too late.
With the win, Chelsea have now reinstated their 10 point lead over second place Tottenham.
Download the brand new OffTheBall App in the Play Store & App Store right now! We've got you covered!
Subscribe to OffTheBall's YouTube channel for more videos, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for the latest sporting news and content.
