West Ham 1-0

Independent:

West Ham 0 Chelsea 1

Eden Hazard scores only goal in tight contest as Chelsea continue march towards the title

Sam Wallace

Eden Hazard’s goal midway through the first half was only half the story, and there was much of this game that did not go the way of Chelsea, but that is what it can be like in the dog days of a title race. Were it not for Diafra Sakho’s shaky finishing, had an offside decision gone West Ham’s way then it might so easily have been different. The truth is, however, that only very good teams win games like these.
That was not to say Mourinho’s team were always at their best and, tired from Sunday’s Wembley triumph, they found themselves attacked relentlessly by West Ham in the second half when the game truly came to life. The home side created chance after chance for Sakho: sometimes he missed them and more often than not the hands of Thibaut Courtois, back in the Chelsea team, intervened.
Without a win in the league since 18 January, Sam Allardyce’s side showed the bloody-mindedness required to give Chelsea a game, they just did not have the goals in this team to get a result.  In defence, John Terry and Gary Cahill were excellent once again. A goal against them in this form is hard-won to say the least. This Chelsea defence, and their goalkeeper, lays everything on the line and West Ham did not quite have the quality to overcome that resistance.
At the end of the game the four Chelsea defenders and Courtois converged to embrace, and Petr Cech, left out the side this time, joined them on the pitch. This spirit is a major part of what is carrying Chelsea forward to the title.
It had been strangely bloodless for a meeting of these two teams until the final few minutes of the first half when the usual suspects started dishing out some of the punishment which the two sets of supporters expect. First James Collins left Kurt Zouma needing a long period of treatment with a tackle that connected with his ankle, then Diego Costa tried to leave something on Aaron Cresswell.
As Zouma hopped and stumbled off the pitch, his right foot dragging, the West Ham fans began to sing “You won’t let him on the train” to their Chelsea counterparts. It was pretty crude stuff but stop for a moment to wonder that these two clubs, with a very chequered history as far as racism is concerned, would seek to take the moral high ground on the issue.
Before then, the Boleyn Ground had been becalmed as some early promise in attacking the league leaders faded and, let off the hook by the poor finishing of Cheikhou Kouyate and Sakho, Chelsea struck.
If they saw anything of Sunday’s Capital One Cup final, West Ham will have known that against Chelsea one has no option but to make hay while the sun shines. Fail to take chances against Mourinho’s team and you can be sure they will not make the same mistake when their opportunity comes.
So it was that Chelsea picked the home team apart on the counter-attack. It was not one of their high-speed chases from end to end, more a careful stretching and probing of the West Ham defence that saw the final passes go from Cesc Fabregas to Ramires out on the right wing who crossed for Hazard to head the ball in from close range.
The instinct was that the cross found Hazard in an offside position and the replays suggested as much. Nevertheless, Mourinho’s team had absorbed the best West Ham had to offer in those early stages – and West Ham had more chances in the first half than Tottenham Hotspur had in all Sunday’s final – and come out ahead.
Sakho headed straight at Courtois from Carl Jenkinson’s cross on 36 minutes when the striker really should have done much better. The West Ham full-back had earlier sprinted after Costa when the striker was put through to Hazard and used his greater pace to block the shot as it came off the toe of the Chelsea man.
The mood at the end of the half, the tackles from Collins and Costa and a growing sense of injustice in the stands that referee Andre Marriner had dealt with West Ham unfairly, meant that it came quickly to the boil after the break. Allardyce’s team seemed to sense that Chelsea were not without their vulnerabilities and went after them.
They would have had more than one goal were it not for the finishing of Sakho and, more pertinently, the goalkeeping of Courtois. The West Ham striker found himself thwarted more than once by the Belgian who was outstanding – even in the moments when it looked like he must surely be beaten he was able to recover the situation.
He saved on 53 minutes when it looked like he was wrong-footed by Sakho’s shot and the ball was going to trickle past him. He saved again on the hour when Stewart Downing stole the ball away from Branislav Ivanovic and fed his striker. In Chelsea’s rockiest periods, their goalkeeper kept coming to the rescue and even when he dropped one – Enner Valencia’s shot – they survived.

In that period Chelsea had chances of their own too. Ramires clipped the inside of goalkeeper Adrian’s post having stepped around the challenge of Collins. Then the West Ham goalkeeper saved brilliantly from Ramires’ header, dropped onto his forehead by Hazard’s delicate chip from the left.
There was one more Sakho miss, a header that went over before the substitute Willian had a shot cleared off the line. It will be regarded as another small step for Mourinho’s team towards the title but if you were at Upton Park, you saw another performance that suggested this team have the right stuff.


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Guardian:

Eden Hazard goal edges Chelsea past West Ham to maintain league lead
West Ham 0 - 1 Chelsea

Dominic Fifield at Upton Park


The scene at the final whistle told its own story. Chelsea players, as relieved as they were elated, converged in small groups in front of those massed in the lower tier of the Sir Trevor Brooking stand with the clenched fists and bellowed celebrations betraying the significance of success. Claiming the Capital One Cup at Wembley, and with it the first major silverware of José Mourinho’s second coming, is one thing. Emerging victorious from a derby as brutal as this to retain authority in the title race arguably meant so much more. The manager was probably only half joking when he admitted he might lie in until midday to recover.
This was blisteringly frenetic, the visitors stretched horribly at times by a West Ham United side who had won only once in 10 matches and were apparently witnessing their own promising campaign dying a death. At times the leaders heaved to contain the Hammers, with Sam Allardyce’s team direct and relentless, pouring forward with Diafra Sakho spurning at least four clear opportunities and Thibaut Courtois, restored after Sunday, maintaining his finest clean sheet yet as a Chelsea player.
That Chelsea’s only goal was perilously close to being ruled out for offside, with West Ham also left to bemoan the non-award of a penalty for handball against Gary Cahill, merely reinforced the sense that this was a decisive moment in the title race. Chelsea remain five points clear with a game in hand against the club who currently prop up the division. Theirs remains a position of strength.
It was certainly the kind of nail-biting win with which titles are claimed. West Ham had posed a different kind of threat to Tottenham Hotspur at the national stadium, with this team laced with pace and eager running when spurred on in a hostile atmosphere, and Enner Valencia and Sakho a constant menace.
The absence of the suspended Nemanja Matic was keenly felt throughout by the visitors, even if Mourinho subsequently revealed that his Serbian midfield shield had managed to twist an ankle while celebrating Sunday’s success out on the pitch and would not have been available to feature here even without his ban. “He had shinpads on but he didn’t have tape on,” said the manager of Matic, who had joined his team-mates on the pitch at Wembley post-match. He could deliver that anecdote through a smile given the injury is minor, but also because his available lineup had triumphed regardless.
Psychologically, it would have been damaging had the slender lead secured by Eden Hazard’s goal midway through the opening period been surrendered amid West Ham’s avalanche of second-half chances. Courtois had risen to the occasion superbly, clawing away from the grounded Sakho’s prod, then diving sharply to his left to deflect the striker’s effort behind. His saves in the first half had been just as eye-catching, the Senegalese forward nodding Carl Jenkinson’s right-wing cross firmly down for Courtois to push away, while Cheikhou Kouyaté’s close-range attempt was blocked with his shins.
When the Belgian did spill Valencia’s attempt, Cahill dived in to suffocate Sakho’s follow-up. The visitors were stretched, the threat charging at them from all angles with John Terry booked early and less at ease against slippery opponents whose energy levels never dipped. Allardyce bemoaned rare profligacy. “The way they play, nobody is better than them,” said Mourinho. “We faced some periods where we had to defend with everything.”
Their own threat was mustered on the counterattack, with their approach as ruthless as West Ham had been relentless. Kevin Nolan was still wondering how he had failed to make contact with Jenkinson’s centre when Chelsea broke at pace, Cesc Fàbregas exchanging passes with Hazard on the edge of the West Ham penalty area before slipping the overlapping Ramires free.
The home side were still adjusting to the hamstrung Winston Reid’s early departure, with the Brazilian’s centre whipped across the six-yard box and met emphatically by Hazard, who planted his header beyond Adrián. The playmaker appeared to have been marginally the wrong side of Aaron Cresswell and Jenkinson, the deepest of West Ham’s ramshackle back-line, but the assistant’s flag was not raised. Mourinho may consider good fortune had been with his team on this occasion.
They should have prospered further on the counter, Jenkinson conjuring one wondrous last-ditch tackle to thwart Diego Costa as he prepared to bury a second and Ramires, twice found by the brilliant Hazard, striking post and the goalkeeper’s outstretched foot. Cresswell somehow cleared Willian’s attempt from the line in stoppage time, but those missed opportunities merely added to the drama, both managers reduced to gibbering wrecks in their technical areas by the frantic majesty of the contest.
“It would have been easy to have lost two points here,” added Mourinho. “We were on edge to the end because we couldn’t kill the game off, but in the end it was a massive win for us.” The title remains theirs to lose. Come May, they might just reflect on that win down the District Line as the moment the championship had started to feel properly within their grasp.

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Telegraph:

West Ham 0 Chelsea 1
Jose Mourinho's side show title-winning strength

Henry Winter

This was the type of gutsy display which titles are made out of. This was the sort of determination to protect a lead that surely leads to the Premier League. At the final whistle, as the Chelsea fans chorused “we’re going to win the league”, Thibaut Courtois and his defenders embraced en masse, even being joined by the reserve keeper, Petr Cech. They all knew how much this meant.
This was a reminder of Chelsea’s resilience. John Terry was taunted by the West Ham United fans throughout, was alarmed by the pace of some of the opponents, but stood firm. Gary Cahill made some vital clearances while Kurt Zouma again impressed in deep midfield.
West Ham were very good, attacking time after time, and Diafra Sakho would have had a hat-trick but for his faulty radar and Courtois’ excellence, but they just could not find an equaliser to Eden Hazard’s goal after 22 minutes.
Hazard’s 10th league goal of the season had been the difference between the sides in the first half. West Ham disappeared down the tunnel, reflecting on a host of wasted or saved chances. Chelsea were good on the counter but West Ham should have made some of their excellent approach play pay off, especially as Terry was not at his best and was constantly barracked by the home fans.
Sam Allardyce was forced into an early change when Winston Reid injured his knee clearing as Diego Costa chased a ball down the right.
Reid limped off, slightly to Allardyce’s consternation as James Collins was not quite ready to come on. Down to 10 men, West Ham almost conceded when Cesc Fabregas teased the ball to Oscar, whose cross from the right was turned over by Costa from close range.
Collins arrived, West Ham settled, and began troubling Chelsea. Terry was booked for hauling down a rampaging Emmer Valencia. Cheikhou Kouyaté had a shot at the near post blocked by Courtois. With Chelsea’s defence labouring to deal with West Ham’s speed, Kouyaté arrowed the ball across to Sakho, who failed to make significant contact and the moment was lost.
Chelsea were absorbing the pressure, looking for their moment, so confident in their qualities. After 22 minutes, they struck. Chelsea then counter-attacked, Hazard playing a significant early part in accelerating the move before Fabregas gave it even more menace with a clever pass to Ramires on the right.
The Brazilian’s fourth assist of the season saw him drive the ball across the box for Hazard, having escaped Collins, to head past Adrián. As Hazard peeled away, pointing with surprise and delight at a rare header, West Ham fans in the Bobby Moore Stand screamed for offside. Andre Marriner and his officials had no doubts, signalling the goal.
Chelsea should have made it 2-0 from another counter. Hazard sent Costa tearing down the inside-left channel. The Spaniard raced into the box but paused as Adrián advanced, allowing Carl Jenkinson to slide in and rescue the situation with a magnificent clearing tackle.
Jenkinson then demonstrated his more adventurous side, charging down the right and lifting in a great cross that deserved far better than Sakho’s weak downward header, bouncing straight down and up at Courtois, who stuck out a hand to save.
Zouma had been making some important clearances, and also making some forward runs, one of which was ended by a late challenge from Collins, leaving the Frenchman writhing on the ground. Play continued much to Chelsea fans’ anger. Eventually, Marriner stopped play, allowing Zouma to be attended to.
As he limped to the sidelines, West Ham supporters inquired of the visiting fans: “would you let him on the train?” The away contingent responded with “he’s won more than you”.
Chelsea emerged for the second half sensing West Ham’s growing threat and clearly determined to secure that second goal. Ramires hit a post. Then came an astonishing save from Adrián. The build-up was quick and accurate, Terry meeting a West Ham clearance first time with a pass straight to Fabregas. The Spaniard turned the ball on to Hazard, who was making ground down the inside-left channel.
Hazard lifted the cross towards the far post where Ramires headed powerfully down. The ball seemed destined for the net until Adrián somehow threw himself towards the ball and managed to flick it to safety.
West Ham have had some fine goalkeepers down the years, and Adrián’s save was one that Mervyn Day or Phil Parkes would have been proud of.
Courtois continued to highlight his class and why Cech will surely seek pastures new in the summer. When Stuart Downing picked out Sakho, Courtois put in another good save. Chelsea hunted that second goal to end this West Ham uprising. Hazard had a shot blocked before West Ham resumed their attempted siege of Courtois’ goal. Nolan was breaking up moves and starting West Ham attacks.
Yet the home side kept running into a human wall in the shape of Terry and Cahill. Noble had a shot blocked. When Courtois fumbled a shot, Cahill was on hand to clear.
West Ham fans howled for retribution when Kouyaté ran into the back of Terry, the pair accidentally clashing heads. As Kouyaté lay there, requiring attention, Terry walked to the touchline where he stood for three minutes, taking a succession of comments and abusive gestures from the home supporters. He was eventually joined on the side by Kouyaté, and the pair ran back on.
If the technical standard was not always at the highest, the intensity of the Derby drama made it utterly compelling. Terry was constantly booed. Cahill headed out a Downing cross. With three minutes remaining, Downing raced past Branislav Ivanovic, whipping in a cross that absolutely begged to be buried in the Chelsea net. To widespread disbelief, Sahko headed over.
On it went, the Chelsea resistance. Terry darted in a head of Sakho to clear. Zouma hounded Valencia to halt a West Ham attack. Terry thundered a clearance away.
On it went, Courtois clutching a cross from Jenkinson. Chelsea should have made it 2-0 in added time. Fabregas found Hazard, who decided to pass rather than shoot, teeing up Willian but his shot was stopped on the line. At the final whistle, Mourinho punched the air. Chelsea are surely closing on the title.

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Mail:

West Ham 0 Chelsea 1

Eden Hazard is heading for the big prize as Blues maintain title advantage with London derby win
By Martin Samuel

It is supposed to be to Chelsea’s advantage that they have to leave London only three times in what remains of the Premier League campaign.
Really? Are we sure about that? Arsene Wenger always thought it was harder for a London club to win the league because there were so many derbies, and this match rather supported his theory.
Chelsea still collected three points but, by Jove, it was tough. Their defence was stretched in a way that it was not at Wembley on Sunday and, by the end, Chelsea were happy to hoof the ball forward or run it into corners to take time out of the game.
West Ham have won a single league fixture since Christmas, but it did not look like it here. They had chances, real chances, to wrest the points from the league leaders, and it says much that Chelsea’s prime performers were once again the central defensive core of John Terry, Gary Cahill and Thibaut Courtois in goal.
And Eden Hazard, of course. Always Hazard. He scored the goal, never stopped wanting or carrying the ball, and left the field hobbling, as always, due to a standard battering. Not that West Ham were excessively dirty — Chelsea had four bookings to West Ham’s three — more that a player of Hazard’s ability is always going to attract a certain kind of attention.
The group hug that Terry, Cahill, Courtois and Branislav Ivanovic shared at the end should have included Hazard; in his own way, he is as hard as any of them.
If Chelsea maintain their supremacy, this is one of those games that will be remembered the day the title is won, one of those they-shall-not-pass performances, all bodies flying, desperate lunges and the ball in row Z if needs be.
West Ham were left banging their heads against a wall — no wild metaphor in the case of Cheikhou Kouyate, who ran face first into the back of Terry’s skull late in the second half. Both required treatment, but one came off considerably worse.
West Ham have now failed to score in six of their last seven Premier League matches against Chelsea, including the last five in a row.
Eden Hazard’s last four Premier League goals have come away from home after a run of 11 consecutive home goals
It is fair to say if they are ever pondering a fresh material to use in the construction of those black boxes in aircraft, Terry’s cranium may have to be considered.
Alas, Diafra Sakho. It is hard to remember a striker getting in so many excellent positions for such paltry return. He knows where to be, he just lacks the clinical touch when he gets there and, thwarted by his own failings and the excellence of Courtois, West Ham drew a blank.
Yes, Chelsea could have scored more, too. This was not a one-sided game — but we expect Chelsea pressure on the goal. They have world-class finishers and magicians in midfield. The surprise was West Ham going toe-to-toe with them, particularly, in the second half. Right up until the last minute they were still heaping on pressure.
Chelsea have matches at Queens Park Rangers and Arsenal, and a home fixture against Crystal Palace, to come, so nobody should underestimate the challenge to their championship ambition contained in a London derby.
This was one of the hardest-fought wins of Chelsea’s season — every bit as much of a proving ground as a wet Wednesday in Wigan, or whatever northern outpost is the current venue for popular cliche.
Mourinho’s favourite scoreline is apparently 2-0 away. He regards it as the sign of a controlled, confident, emphatic performance in a close game.
They certainly went in search of it here and came very close on three occasions in the second half.
In the 56th minute, a beautiful through pass from Hazard set Ramires clear on goal. He cut inside but his delicate side-footed finish struck the inside of the far post and rebounded into the hands of Adrian.
Minutes later, West Ham’s goalkeeper was in the right place again after Terry found Hazard whose cross picked out Ramires at the far post. This time there was no good fortune.
The save was superb. There were six minutes of injury time due to the Terry-Kouyate collision and Chelsea came close to wrapping it up then.
Hazard broke, for the last time, drawing Adrian yet squaring the ball unselfishly to Willian, whose shot was somehow smothered on its way to the net.
The single goal was the fairer margin of victory, however. West Ham did not deserve to appear mastered in the scoreline after a simply thrilling second half.
The first wasn’t bad either, West Ham going close in the 17th minute, when a cross from Mark Noble found a dangerous area at the near post where Kevin Nolan caused localised chaos and Kouyate arrived late only to have his shot blocked by the shins of Courtois.
Two minutes later, a run by Enner Valencia opened a gap to slide a pass through to Sakho, who missed his kick. More frustration was to come. In the 37th minute, Carl Jenkinson crossed from the right and the ball dropped perfectly to Sakho, directly in front of goal, but planting his header into the ground, landing safely in the hands of Courtois.
After 53 minutes, Courtois saved from Sakho again, pushing out a shot one-handed, just the right side of Nolan. He saved from Sakho after 60 minutes, too, and when he finally spilled a Valencia shot 12 minutes later, the outstanding Cahill cleared as Sakho threatened in vain.
It was not all wastefulness by West Ham, though. In the 15th minute, a mix-up by Ivanovic saw Valencia about to speed past Terry and go through on goal.
The Chelsea captain weighed the odds in a split second and hauled him down, rugby style. Did he prevent a goalscoring opportunity? Probably. Did he play the percentage chance of referee Andre Marriner showing him a red card 30 yards out and early in the match, with Cahill covering, if not really in a position to stop? Undoubtedly. Did he get away with it? Yes. Yellow card. It was a cynical move, but the smart one, too.
It was seven minutes later that the winner was scored. To be beaten by a header playing Chelsea is no disgrace; when the man on the end of the ball is Hazard, however, a manager has a right to be aggrieved. Sam Allardyce certainly looked it as the Chelsea man completed a headed goal that was as casually taken as a tap-in, with West Ham’s defence appallingly lax.
James Collins had replaced the injured Winston Reid after five minutes, but that was no excuse. The back four had plenty of time to bed in but went to sleep doing so. It was a neat build-up involving Hazard and Cesc Fabregas, who slipped the ball to Ramires overlapping on the right. He had too much room and cut the ball back to leave West Ham flat-footed, Hazard sneaking between the statues to glance a stooping header past Adrian.
It was too easy, and it is hard enough to beat Chelsea already — a point Allardyce seemed to be making on the touchline.

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Mirror:

West Ham 0-1 Chelsea:
Eden Hazard on target as Blues maintain momentum with dogged win

Dave Kidd

Jose Mourinho's side were not at their best at Upton Park but went home with maximum points thanks to the Belgian's header

There was a real band-of-brothers feel about the way Chelsea’s back four celebrated this tense victory with the heroic Thibaut Courtois.
They knew they had withstood one hell of a battering from their crosstown rivals, that they had ridden their luck and that the Belgian keeper, who had been rotated out of Sunday’s Capital One Cup Final, had given a towering performance to befit his 6ft 7in stature.
The anti-Chelsea conspirators must have had an evening off because Eden Hazard’s early winner looked fractionally offside, while Diafra Sakho squandered EIGHT genuine scoring chances – many of them thwarted by Courtois.
But Mourinho knew this was the sort of victory titles are made of - on an old-school East End night, when a crackling atmosphere fuelled a vibrant display from Sam Allardyce’s side, who played at breakneck speed.
Chelsea now head down the final straight still five points clear with a game in hand. West Ham have sunk in to mid-table but this was a marked improvement.
Mourinho had given his team precisely 20 minutes to celebrate their Wembley win over Tottenham before they began preparations for a trip to their old chums across the city.
Diego Costa squandered one early chance, blazing over a cross from Oscar.
But the Hammers enjoyed a spell of intense pressure – Wembley hero John Terry booked for hauling down Enner Valencia, Cheikhou Kouyate having a shot blocked by Courtois at point-blank range and then supplying a cross which Sakho somehow failed to put a boot on from eight yards.
So it was almost inevitable that Chelsea should break and score midway through the half.
Cesc Fabregas swept out a pass to Ramires, who centred from the right for Hazard to nod home after the home defence – with Winston Reid lost to an early injury - had nodded off, whatever the linesman’s marginal error.
Costa was robbed by a last-ditch Carl Jenkinson challenge but if he was having an off-night in front of goal, it was nothing compared to Sakho.
The unmarked Senegalese could only aim a weak header at Courtois from a Jenkinson cross – and after the break he drilled one narrowly wide on the turn, then had a close-range effort clawed away brilliantly by Courtois as the bubble-blowers turned up the amp.
Hazard teed up Ramires twice and the Brazilian could not have come closer to doubling Chelsea’s lead – first he shot against the inside of the post after the Belgian had led a breakaway, then he saw a downward header saved instinctively by Adrian’s feet.
Courtois, though, was the busier keeper and he denied Sakho with another plunging effort.
And Sakho was left kicking in the goalpost in frustration when an intervention from Cahill denied him a goal after Courtois had spilled a Kouyate shot.
By the time he had skied a header from Stewart Downing’s cross, Sakho realised this simply wasn’t his night.

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Express:

West Ham 0 - Chelsea 1: Eden Hazard produces the goods for league leaders

Mathew Dunn

Hazard’s 22nd-minute header proved the only goal in an encounter notable for its bad temper.
The Belgium international has lived up to his name in a number of different variations since arriving in the Premier League but seldom the two that marked the good and bad of a petulant first half.
Indeed the uncharacteristic Trip Hazard that earned him a booking in first-half injury time for an angry lash out at Mark Noble was a measure of how narky proceedings had been.
Those 45 minutes had produced just one goal when West Ham completely ignored the Head Hazard warnings – why wouldn’t they, after all, as the Chelsea playmaker is only 5ft 7in.
Nevertheless, he started a move outside the box with Cesc Fabregas and when the former Arsenal player knocked the ball wide to Ramires, Hazard continued a darting run towards goal.
James Collins made a late decision to try to step out and the sort of TV technology not immediately available for the replays beamed to the press box at Upton Park will ultimately determine the split-second call as to whether Hazard was in an offside position when he buried the simplest of headers past Adrian.
Crucially the assistant referee felt he was onside and Sam Allardyce felt he was not – a difference of opinion that was to lead to the purple-faced West Ham manager wagging his finger fiercely at the official’s decision after another debated call, this time over a throw-in.
While Chelsea were clearly the better team, West Ham had shown enough nous with the ball to threaten the Capital One Cup winners.
Diafra Sakho spurned two good chances in quick succession immediately before the Chelsea goal and worse was to come nine minutes before the break when Carl Jenkinson’s cross was headed so far down by the unmarked Senegal international seven yards from goal that it bounced up to a comfortable height by the time it reached Thibaut Courtois’ outstretched hand.
A minute earlier, Jenkinson had provided just as exquisite service at the other end, making up a 10-yard gap when Diego Costa was put through, switching from outside to inside the Chelsea striker and nipping the ball off his foot just as Costa was poised to shoot.
By such narrow margins the game growled into a second period.
Sakho was the first to show, firing into the side netting five minutes after the restart and Chelsea continued to ride their luck as another Sakho effort was pushed unconvincingly aside by Courtois.
West Ham, though, enjoyed an even greater slice of fortune when Ramires appeared to have added a second on the counter-attack. But his shot bounced off the inside of the far post and back into the grateful hands of the beaten Adrian. Courtois again stopped Sakho as the chances continued to come at either end. An Enner Valencia shot bounced off the Chelsea goalkeeper’s chest and Sakho could not quite reach the rebound.
Hazard could easily have seen red after a callous foul on Noble and only John Terry will know if he deliberately dallied in the path of Cheikhou Kouyate, leading to a sickening clash of heads as the latter threatened to burst into the box. Referee Andre Marriner thought it was an accident.
The giant egg which swiftly swelled under the West Ham midfielder’s eye was testament that last night’s game was a proper fight with the Hammers taking the Premier League’s top side right the way to the final bell.

WEST HAM (4-1-4-1): Adrian; Jenkinson, Tomkins, Reid (Collins 8), Cresswell; Noble; Downing, Kouyate (De Carvalho 87), Nolan, Valencia; Sakho. Booked: Kouyate, Collins, Nolan.

NEXT UP: Arsenal (a), Sat March 14 PL.

CHELSEA (4-1-4-1): Courtois; Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, Azpilicueta; Zouma; Ramires, Oscar (Willian 74), Fabregas, Hazard (Remy 90); Costa (Drogba 90). Booked: Terry, Hazard, Fabregas, Drogba. Goal: Hazard 22.

NEXT UP: PSG (h), Wed CL.

Referee: A.Marriner (West Midlands).