Chelsea aim to wrap up the Premier League sooner rather than later and take one step closer to doing just that with their latest victory over West Ham. On Monday evening the two sides faced off at the Olympic Stadium in what was a fairly close and hard fought affair. Heading into the game West Ham found themselves stranded in mid-table. A reasonable distance from both the relegation zone and the European qualifying positions it appears that the Hammers already have very little to fight for in the league in what for them has been a fairly mediocre season thus far. Chelsea, on the other hand, is flying, to say the least. At the top of the Premier League with daylight between themselves and second-placed Tottenham Hotspur, the league is very much theirs to lose now. In recent years the fixture has been a very tight game and the last time the two sides met it was, in fact, West Ham who came out on top. The tie was an EFL cup game back in October in which Chelsea fell to a 2-1 defeat.
But heading into this game it was undoubtedly Chelsea who were favorites given their terrific league form this season. Both sides fielded very predictable starting elevens but the West Ham side doesn’t look as threatening as it once did with a certain Dimitri Payet. But I don’t think a single West Ham fan will care given the lack of respect that he showed to the club.
The game began with both sides playing in quite a nervous fashion. When in possession both teams remained fairly deep as if to cover their backs from potential counter attacks. But in the 25th minute, Chelsea’s first real chance at scoring resulted in Eden Hazard finding the net. Following some neat passing work the winger was able to skilfully take the ball around West Ham goalkeeper Darren Randolph, giving himself a simply tap into an empty net. Advantage Chelsea. The first goal completely changed the dynamics of the game as West Ham now needed to take more risks as sitting back they didn’t look as if they even had a hope of scoring. But this risk taking meant that there was more space on the field which in turn allowed Chelsea to find their often potent rhythm. Chance after chance went by for Chelsea as the Hammers looked to somehow be desperately holding on and keeping themselves in the game.
The second goal of the game quite predictably went in Chelsea’s favor but it wasn’t until the second half when in the 50th minute Diego Costa was able to bundle the ball over the line in a fairly scrappy goal. West Ham failed to deal with a Chelsea corner, Obiang could do nothing more than flick the ball on and into the path of Diego Costa who was then able to force the ball over the line. A scrappy goal but as the Germans say, Tor ist Tor – a goal is a goal. From here on it was all Chelsea. West Ham did, however, score in the 92nd minute through Manuel Lanzini but this proved to be nothing more than a consolation goal in a match where on the whole Chelsea dominated.
Chelsea has now restored their 10 point lead at the top of the table and really it’s difficult to look past them in the title race. It would take a terrible collapse in form for the Premier League trophy to be anywhere but Stamford Bridge come the close of the season
