Norwich 1-0

Independent:
Diego Costa strokes in only goal of the game as Blues get back to winning ways
Chelsea 1 Norwich City 0
Glenn Moore Stamford Bridge

They were whistling for the final whistle at the end, and when it came the giant roar of relief betrayed the anxiety infecting Stamford Bridge, but this was a far more comfortable victory for Chelsea than the  scoreline suggests. The team are still not playing like defending champions, but they appear on the way  to recovery.

Most significant of all Eden Hazard looks to be rejuvenated, the reigning Footballer of the Year  delivering a bewitching performance of the type that lit up last season but has been rare this. If that pleased Jose Mourinho, he was relieved it was Diego Costa who scored Chelsea’s goal just after the hour. The striker’s muted celebration underlined just what a miserable afternoon he had been enduring before a lapse in concentration by the Norwich defence offered him the opportunity. 

“We deserved to be two, three, four goals up and relaxed at the end,” said Mourinho, “but once more the relation between how we play and the goals we score is not good.”
Mourinho, who punched the air at the final whistle in what he confessed was relief, added of Costa:  “He missed chances so it is a big goal, important for him and for us. If I  had to choose someone to score the winning goal it would be him. When you lose confidence you lose fluency, so he can do better, but one goal  is important. Eden created great chances. It is important also for his confidence. He is a player who is not performing especially well, and a top player who is not playing well feels it more than other players.”

Chelsea have a practice of inviting former players on to the pitch at half-time. Yesterday’s guest was Colin Pates during whose decade at the club Chelsea were relegated twice, nearly went bust, lost possession of Stamford Bridge and flirted with slipping into the third tier. It was a reminder of how much worse a Chelsea crisis used to be.
Modern football, though, is mainly about the here and now. Three successive League defeats, and a position two places off the relegation zone, would create a febrile atmosphere at any top club, never mind one as unstable as Chelsea. 

But while results have remained poor, there have been signs of  improved performances, and Chelsea began with a degree of confidence. Hazard, nominally central but often drifting into good positions on the left, was the fulcrum of most of their moves. In the opening 12 minutes he set up Costa, who shot wide under pressure, and Willian, who drew a good save from John Ruddy. In  between, John Terry went close with a near-post flick.Mourinho gave Kenedy, an attack-minded player, his first Premier League start at left-back. On the other flank Branislav Ivanovic returned and initially looked rusty. He and Kenedy would thus have been happy to see the quick-footed Nathan Redmond  deployed centrally. 
There he was largely starved of service but he did trouble Terry after 20 minutes before finding Dieumerci Mbokani who traded passes with Robbie Brady before shooting over.

Playing two up front was bold by Norwich but left them light in midfield and Chelsea continued to fashion the better chances. However, they tended to fall to Costa, who put an inviting cross from Pedro over the bar despite choosing to side-foot his shot for greater accuracy, then chose to hit the deck in a vain penalty appeal rather than shoot when Willian fed him.
Norwich also had a penaty shout, a much more valid one, when Willian bundled over Brady on the edge of the area. “It was the key moment,” said City manager Alex Neil, who furiously berated the fourth official. “If we get that and score it gives us something to hang on to and Chelsea have to open up more.”

City had one more chance to open the scoring, just before the break when Martin Olssson returned a half-cleared corner and the loose ball reached Sebastien Bassong. Terry produced a trademark block before launching a counter-attack that climaxed with Ruddy denying Costa.
When that was followed by Kurt Zouma blazing over from close in, then Hazard sending a cross begging across the six-yard box for the second time, it seemed the goal would never come. Then Hazard was fouled, Fabregas chipped a quick free-kick over the City defence and Costa finished like Jamie Vardy.
Chelsea could have spared Mourinho the nervous finish but Zouma turned a Willian free-kick against the bar then Ruddy brilliantly denied Nemanja Matic. Victory when it  finally came left Chelsea 12 points off the fourth Champions League spot. “It is difficult, but not impossible,” said Mourinho.

Chelsea: (4-2-3-1) Begovic; Ivanovic, Zouma, Terry, Kenedy; Fabregas, Matic; Willian (Ramires, 87), Hazard (Azpilicueta, 90), Pedro (Oscar, 83); Costa.
Norwich City (4-4-2): Ruddy; Wisdom, Bennett, Bassong, Olsson; Howson (Hoolahan, 73), O’Neil, Mulumbu (Dorrans, 73), Brady; Mbokani (Jerome, 73), Redmond.
Referee: Craig Pawson
Man of the match: Hazard (Chelsea)
Match rating: 7/10

=================

Observer:

Diego Costa on target as Chelsea beat Norwich to end disastrous run
Chelsea 1 - 0 Norwich
Ed Aarons at Stamford Bridge

You could hear the sighs of relief around Stamford Bridge at the final whistle as Chelsea ended a run of three straight Premier League defeats, although none were as loud as José Mourinho’s.
Back in his usual habitat of his side’s once impregnable fortress after his one-match stadium ban, Mourinho spent the majority of the last 20 minutes of this nervy win over Norwich glued to his seat on the bench.

When the referee, Craig Pawson, finally blew for full-time to confirm Diego Costa’s second-half goal as the match winner, the Chelsea manager allowed himself a brief punch of the air in triumph before disappearing down the tunnel.

“It was bit of relief,” he admitted. “I’m not nervous on the bench, I am OK, I am fine. I think we don’t deserve the heartbeat of the last four minutes. I think we deserve to be enjoying the last three, four minutes with a two, three, 4-0 result, relaxed. But we couldn’t.”
Despite Costa’s third Premier League goal of the season, that Norwich could so easily have snatched an equaliser late on could largely be attributed to his failure to take more than one of the succession of chances that came his way. By this stage last year, the Spain international had scored 11 times in the Premier League but he looks a shadow of that player.

After side-footing over from the penalty spot having been picked out by Pedro, Costa wasted the best chance of the first half when he dallied for too long and was denied by John Ruddy in the Norwich goal. That miss was not well received in the Chelsea dugout and Mourinho must have been considering substituting his combative striker moments before the game’s key moment arrived. A quickly taken free kick from Cesc Fàbregas caught the Norwich defence cold and this time Costa found the corner of the net.
“If I had to choose somebody to score the winning goal, I would go exactly with him,” Mourinho said. “Every game that you don’t score goals, you get 5kg more. You get heavy and the pressure is there.

“In the first half he misses two chances. The second one, in the last minute, is really a big one. So it was important for him. Important for us, the result and the goal, but I think also for him.”
Yet if this does end up being a turning point in Costa and Chelsea’s season, Mourinho will know that Eden Hazard deserves just as much credit. The Belgian has looked like he has the weight of the world on his shoulders in recent months but offered a timely reminder of his quality just when Chelsea needed him..
Mourinho rose to applaud him with the rest of the home supporters when he was substituted in injury time after an energetic performance that should have created at least one goal had Costa been at his best. In the end, though, it was one moment of indecision from the well-organised Norwich defence that proved decisive, much to the chagrin of Alex Neil.

 
“The first thing we should do is get around the ball to stop it being taken quickly, or take the ball with us, and even then recover our positions quicker,” lamented the Norwich manager, who also felt his side could have had a penalty when Robbie Brady was felled by a fast-retreating Willian in the first half. “That little lapse in concentration ultimately cost us the match.”
After the last few results, Mourinho will be thankful that it did. Hazard aside, Chelsea still look a shadow of the team that won the title last season and the decision to drop César Azpilicueta and play the Brazilian teenager Kenedy out of position at left-back illustrates the depth of their problems.

Branislav Ivanovic did make his first start since the 3-1 home defeat against Southampton at the beginning of October, although there seemed to be lack of cohesion in both defence and attack.
Against better sides, they will surely have to improve, although Mourinho was realistic enough to admit that they still have plenty of work to do before the season is anywhere near back on track. “We have to go game after game,” he said. “But I said already that the fourth position for me is not an impossible mission. If you ask me the title I would say impossible mission. Maybe Tom Cruise can do it,” he said with the afternoon’s first hint of a smile.

“It’s complicated because you have to recover points from four candidates. But to recover positions and points to teams that normally are in the middle of the table and to grab one of the ones that go up and will also have a little bit of a collapse for sure, because everybody will have. But match after match.”

===================

Telegraph:
Diego Costa scores winner to give Jose Mourinho breathing space
Chelsea 1 Norwich 0:
By  Sam Wallace, at Stamford Bridge

Just minutes before his striker scored the game’s winning goal, Jose Mourinho had become so desperate to find a way in which to coax Diego Costa into action that he had demanded the Brazilian’s attention from the touchline and then mimed tapping an imaginary ball into an imaginary goal.

Moments earlier, Costa had been missing in action when a cross from Eden Hazard had flashed across the face of an unguarded Norwich goal to the gasps and grumbles of the home crowd. There was a significant unoccupied area of the pitch where the Chelsea centre-forward was supposed to be and it was starting to get embarrassing.
When finally Costa’s goal did come he deliberated long enough to make you think he might just miss. Afterwards the Mourinho described how he wondered during the last few minutes of the game, when Norwich threw everything they had at it, that perhaps another catastrophe was about to befall him, that “maybe we score in our own goal in the last minute.”

That bleak perspective is born of the bitter experience of the last eight weeks during which Chelsea have won just twice in the league since beating Arsenal on 19 September, and there were times when you thought that this game night go the same way that so many others have for Mourinho.  
His team dominated the first half and yet, with Costa picking the wrong run to make, or not even running at all, or missing chances, there was always a chance that they could throw it away. Alex Neil was convinced that his Norwich team should have had a penalty on 33 minutes when Willian barged into Robbie Brady. “I generally don’t say anything about referees because they have a hard enough job,” he said, “but it is getting extremely frustrating.”

For the two good chances that Costa missed in the first half, there was also a superb John Terry block that denied Sebastien Bassong – a classic, body-on-the-line lunge in front of the ball when all seemed lost. The first half could have been much worse for Chelsea who, in spite of fine performances from Eden Hazard, Nemanja Matic and Kenedy, at left back, might have conceded.
Mourinho dedicated the game to the club’s player liaison officer Gary Staker, whose father died this week and has worked for Chelsea since the days when he was the only Italian speaker they could rustle up to translate for Claudio Ranieri. Mourinho said that fourth place was still a possibility, suggesting that an unnamed team who have exceeded expectations – surely, Leicester City – would “have a little bit of a collapse” at some point.

“If you ask me [if Chelsea can win] the title I would say ‘impossible mission’. Maybe Tom Cruise can do it. It's complicated because you have to recover points from four candidates. But to recover positions and points to teams that normally are in the middle of the table [is possible]. To grab one of those that go up and will also have a little bit of a collapse for sure, because everybody does.”
The win means that at least Mourinho has some breathing space although the pressure will be back on again in 24 hours’ time as Chelsea travel to Israel for their Champions League game against Maccabi Tel Aviv, and then face Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday. The Spurs game looms large for Mourinho because, White Hart Lane is one place Chelsea fans hate to lose.

For now though he can give grudging thanks that Costa kept his composure on 64 minutes when he cut inside Ryan Bennett and stroked the ball beyond the reach of John Ruddy. It brings to an end a three-game run of defeats in the league that has shredded Mourinho’s season and left him very much at the mercy of Roman Abramovich, who was at Stamford Bridge.

Costa had missed twice in the first half, both from crosses from Pedro, and the second very well saved by Ruddy. Mourinho said that Costa had a tendency to be late recovering his positon and be caught offside, and, indeed, Chelsea’s goal came from a quick free-kick from Cesc Fabregas that opened the space behind Norwich’s defence.
“You don't score goals, you get heavier,” Mourinho said of Costa’s state of mind. “Every game that you don't score goals, you get five kilograms more. You get heavy and the pressure is there.
“Everything is connected. When you are full of confidence it's not just about goals, it's also about fluency. You are fluent in your decisions, you choose your movements well, you choose well the number of touches you have on the ball, when to hold, when to keep possession, when to touch, first touch.
“When you lose confidence, you lose this fluent game. Yes, he can do much better, but again, yes, one goal is very important.”

=========================

Mail:

Chelsea 1-0 Norwich: Diego Costa nets winner as Jose Mourinho's struggling side claim a much-needed win at Stamford Bridge

By Rob Draper for The Mail on Sunday 

When the celebration came from Diego Costa, it was almost weary. Certainly it was more relieved that ecstatic.
Moments before he had eventually found the net, his manager Jose Mourinho had come off the bench to engage in an animated conversation with his star striker.
‘Just side foot it!’ seemed to be gist, as he motioned that action. Or get into the box and get on the end of it: something along those line, anyway.

Whatever it was, Mourinho’s frustration seemed to be growing. Even the Chelsea fans’ faith might have been wavering. Loic Remy was warming up and Costa’s time seemed limited.
Up until the 64th minute, it was simply one of those afternoons that wasn’t happening for the man who scored 20 goals for the club last season.
Chelsea have had multiple problems this season, but Costa’s form, the failure of Radamel Falcao and unwillingness to trust Remy has been chief amongst them.

To put it into context, Costa has now scored seven goals in his last 28 appearances for Chelsea; he scored seven in his first four games for the club.
So when the quick free kick from Cesc Fabregas came for Costa from deep and was controlled by the Brazilian-born player, who cut inside Ryan Bennett, there was a moment when you wondered, whether even this clear chance might be spurned.
And then Costa opened up his body, struck the ball with the kind of confidence he carried last season and the ball curled around John Ruddy’s out-stretched hand.

The ripple of the net told Costa that his six-game wait for a goal was over. And then there was that celebration: Costa simply stood and pointed with one arm to the sky, seemingly thankful his ordeal was over.
‘When you don't score goals, you get heavier,’ said Mourinho. ‘Every game that you don't score goals, you get five kilogrammes more. You get heavy and the pressure is there. But he's working well, he's a happy guy and he tries everything. He's positive, so if I had to choose somebody to score the winning goal, I would go exactly with him.’

But as Mourinho would acknowledge, prior to that 64th minute strike, there was nothing to suggest it would come right for Costa. There was a missed strike on 26 minutes and a worse one just before half time, where he dallied when played in by a Kenedy cross and allowed Ruddy time to set himself to save.

The intervention from the bench from Mourinho came as he held back rather than drove into the box to connect with a Eden Hazard cross on the hour. Nothing he did seemed to be the right option.
‘With so many pundits we have in different media, some of them were strikers and some of them know the feeling,’ said Mourinho.‘In the first half he misses two chances. The second one, in the last minute of the first half, was really a big one. So it was important for him. Important for us, the result and the goal, but I think also for him.

‘Everything is connected. I think when you are full of confidence it's not just about goals, it's also about being fluent. You are fluent in your decisions, you choose your movements well, you choose the number of touches you give to the ball well, when to hold, when to keep possession, when to touch, first touch. When you lose confidence, you lose this fluent game. Yes, he can do much better, but again, yes, one goal is very important.’

All around though, relief was order of the day for a Chelsea team which had lost its last three Premier League games. Costa’s lack of fluency is merely a function of Chelsea’s own stuttering season. The pertinent question is whether one victory can spark something of a renaissance and the evidence was decidedly mixed.
Norwich may be among their prey in Premier League terms – though they did actually start the day above them – but they did enough in the first half to suggest they might add to Chelsea’s woes. The decisive moment came on 33 minutes when Willian clumsily crashed into Robbie Brady inside the area, a clear penalty, which referee Craig Pawson declined to award. Conspiracies, it seems, cut both ways.
‘It was a key moment for both teams,’ said Alex Neil. ‘Quite a lot this season we haven’t been getting decisions our way and we should have a penalty today. We set up with a strategy to frustrate them and hit them on the counter and I think the first half we did that very well.’
Norwich had their moments. Only John Terry diving at full stretch prevent Sebastien Bassong opening the scoring on 42 minutes and Nathan Redmond’s pace again exposed the weakness of Chelsea’s back four.
That said, on the plus side, there was a crispness in their build up, characterised by the continuing return to form from Hazard. At times he dazzled, playing in the No.10 position. But no-one was capable of completing his work; certainly not Costa, until that 64th minute redemption.

A few minutes later, a lovely Willian free kick was met by a Kurt Zouma flick, which rebounded off the crossbar. Robbie Brady forced an excellent save from Asmir Begovic from long-range on 68 minutes.
And at the end, it seemed Nemanja Matic, much improved, had a mazy run which ended with him one-on-one with Ruddy, the Norwich keeper needing to be at his best to smother the shot.
But Chelsea had their win and Costa had his goal. And Mourinho, who greeted the final whistle with a little punch of the air, had some respite.

CHELSEA (4-2-3-1): Begovic 6.5, Ivanovic 6, Zouma 7.5, Terry 7.5, Kenedy 6.5, Fabregas 7.5, Matic 6.5, Pedro 6.5 (Oscar - 83), Willian 7 (Ramires - 87), Hazard 8 (Azpilicueta - 93), Costa 7
Subs not used: Traore, Remy, Cahill, Blackman
Manager: Mourinho 7
Goals: Costa 64
Booked: Willian

NORWICH (4-2-3-1): Ruddy 7, Wisdom 5.5, Bennett 5.5, Bassong 6, Olsson 5.5, Redmond 5.5, O'Neil 6, Mulumbu 6 (Dorrans - 73) 6, Brady 6.5, Howson 6 (Hoolahan - 73) 6, Mbokani 5.5 (Jerome - 73) 6
Subs: Whittaker, Rudd, Lafferty, Odjidja-Ofoe
Manager: Neil 6
Booked: Mulumbu, O'Neil, Olsson, Bassong
Referee: Craig Pawson (South Yorkshire)

MOM: Hazard
Attendance: 41,582

===================

Mirror;

Chelsea 1-0 Norwich: 5 things we learned as Diego Costa winner relieves the pressure on Jose Mourinho

 
By Darren Lewis
 
After missing a host of chances, Diego Costa netted after 64 minutes to hand the beleaguered champions a much-needed win

 Diego Costa ended his six-game goalless run with the winner to stop the Chelsea rot.
The Spain striker curled in a 64th-minute finish and raised his arm in relief as his barren run came to an end.
The victory prevented the Champions, 16th at the start of play, from losing four matchers in succession for the first time under Roman Abramovich.
Boss Jose Mourinho also enjoyed only his third clean sheet in Chelsea’s 13 League games this season.
Norwich’s run of not winning an away game since August 15 continued here after chances were blown earlier by Nathan Redmond and Dieumercik Mbokani.

Here are five things Darren Lewis learned at Stamford Bridge:

1) Baba Rahman had better start having a look around
A regular at German club Ausburg last year, the 21-year-old has started just two games in League so far. It is exactly the situation that had him apprehensive about trading the Bundesliga for the Premier League in the summer. He must have been gutted to see rookie forward Kenedy in his position here.

2) Nemanja Matic is looking like the midfielder from last season again
Good decision making, alert in the tackle and an influence in midfield again. The international break appears to have done him some good.

3) The Chelsea fans’ frustration with the players is increasing
On a number of occasions here there the home fans made their feelings clear about the apparent lack of appetite from a couple of Chelsea players.
They groaned a back-heel from Branislav Ivanovic went out of play. They moaned groaned after Hazard’s cut-back went into the six yard box instead of to Costa in space.
And they were at it again in the second half when Hazard’s ball went into the six yard box but nobody showed a willingness to cash in.

4) Diego Costa is still struggling to find his goalscoring feet this season
His radar seems to be all over the place. Last season you would have put your mortgage on his scoring with even the slightest sniff of goal.
Here, his nightmare start to the campaign continued as he skied one from eight yards, he allowed Ruddy to save with his legs just before the break and he simply struggled to convince.
Eventually, he was able to end his gaol drought. but Loic Remy must really have upset someone at Stamford Bridge to not be playing with Costa in this form.

5) Norwich need more cutting edge
They had chances but just couldn’t take them.
And against a side with Chelsea’s confidence they should have done. The efforts on goal that they did have, from Redmond and Mbokani, were either easy for Asmir Begovic or wayward when they should have been on target.

Darren Lewis' player ratings:
Chelsea
Begovic 8 - Good save from Redmond’s 14th-minute angled drive. Even better from Brady on 68.
Zouma 7 - Should have done better with his effort from Willian’s corner. Unlucky to hit the bar from Willian free-kick.
Ivanovic 6 - Started okay but given a tough time by Brady, Redmond and Mbokani.
Terry 7 - Unlucky with his 13th-minute flick from Willian corner. Great block to deny Bassong.
Kenedy 7 - A surprise starter at left-back - but did a better job than Ivanovic on the other side.
Matic 9 - Getting his mojo back. Slick passing. Good anticipation
Fabregas 7 - Unlucky to see his 10th-minute effort go over the bar from close range.
Hazard 8 - Sharp again. Sent some nice balls into the box. Nobody there to cash in though!
Willian 7 - Quick feet to get his 14th-minute effort away. Lucky not to concede a penalty for his push on Brady.
Pedro 6 - Nice cut-back to tee up Costa on 25 minutes. Industrious throughout.
Costa 7 - His goal will have done him the world of good. Average until then.
Subs:
Ramires (Willian 87)
Azpilicueta (Hazard 90)

Norwich
Ruddy 6 - Fine save from Willian’s 14th-minute effort. No chance with the goal.
Wisdom 5 - Did well enough against a combination of Pedro and Kenedy.
Bassong 6 - Went to sleep for the goal. Rightly booked for his pull on Hazard.
Howson 5 - Industrious but unable to repel the threat from the home side. Replaced.
Olsson 5 - Rightly booked for clattering Costa as the striker raced in on goal.
Bennett 5 - Great tackle on Hazard to prevent the Belgian scoring Chelsea’s second.
O’Neil 5 - Rightly booked for his foul on Hazard just after half time.
Mulumbu 6 - Worked hard to try and deny time and space to Chelsea’s creative players.
Brady 6 - Linked up well with Redmond and Mbokani to cause early problems.
Redmond 6 - Worked hard in support of Mbokani up front. But couldn’t provide enough cutting edge.
Mbokani 5 - Should have done better with his 19th-minute shot from inside the box.
Subs:
Hoolahan (Howson 72) 5
Jerome (Mbokani 72) 5
Mulumbu (Dorrans 72) 5
Man of the Match: Matic
Ref: Craig Pawson

=========================

Sun:

Chelsea 1 Norwich 0
Costa fires Blues' winner on 64 minutes

By MIKE McGRATH

ANY Diego Costa goal these days is a bit of a collectors’ item.
Well, there have been only four of them in 16 games this season.
Not exactly against the best, either — Macabbi Tel Aviv, West Brom, Aston Villa and now Norwich, a side who have not beaten the Blues for 22 years.
But this one was worth the wait.
And worth its weight in gold seeing it ended Chelsea’s run of three straight Premier League defeats.
A quick free-kick by the impressive Eden Hazard in the 64th minute sent Costa and Pedro away after an eagle-eyed linesman correctly ruled both Chelsea players were just onside.
Costa checked inside Ryan Bennett before sending a curling shot round the excellent John Ruddy and inside the far post.
It was a much-needed victory for Jose Mourinho, returning to the bench after his one-match stadium ban at Stoke, and thoroughly deserved.
It also set up Chelsea nicely for their Champions League trip to Tel Aviv on Tuesday followed by a full-blooded London derby on Sunday at White Hart Lane, where Tottenham won an eight-goal thriller 5-3 last season.
Mourinho spread his arms, we knew what he was thinking.

The Chelsea boss was the first to applaud Costa after the controversy and poor form that has dogged his striker all season.
Mourinho said: “When you don’t score goals, the pundits are all on your back.
“Yes, he missed a couple of chances in the first half, the second a big one. So the one that went in was important, not just for the team but for him.
“But he stays positive. And if I had to choose someone to score the winner, it would be him.
“When you are confident, it’s not just about goals but fluency.
“You are fluent in your movement, your decisions, when to keep possession and when to pass the ball. When you are not, you struggle.
“Yes, he can do better. But this goal will have helped him a lot.”
It has also got him off the hook.
Until Costa’s goal, it had been a re-run of all the previous frustrations that had afflicted the Chelsea No 19 this season.
Blues fans, of course, have been right behind him but even they were having their patience tested.

Four separate incidents in the first half was all the evidence you needed to mount quite a case against Costa.
A neat 26th-minute move between Cesc Fabregas and Pedro ended with a cutback into the box from the winger that was totally wasted by Costa, as the splay-footed striker shot over from a good position.
But we really got to the core of the problem 11 minutes later when Hazard, returning to the sort of form that made him double Footballer of the Year last season, broke on the right before delivering a low cross that sped across the face of the Norwich goal.
There was no Chelsea player near it, least of all Costa.
The Matthew Harding End let out a groan of frustration.

Two minutes on and Costa, receiving the ball in the box, tried to get round Sebastien Bassong, failed, fell over and claimed a penalty. Ah, the Costa we all know and love.
With three minutes to go to the break we had the most exciting 30 seconds of all in a match that never paused for breath.
A Martin Olsson ball across the Chelsea box gave Bassong a great chance to put Norwich ahead, only for a magnificent block from John Terry to immediately give Chelsea the opportunity to break.
They flew up the other end, the impressive Kenedy crossed from the left side, Hazard dummied and Costa had only Ruddy to beat.
But the Spanish striker — without a goal in his previous seven games for club and country — needed too much time and Ruddy was able to deflect the shot for a corner.

Mourinho, on his feet, looked back over his shoulder at the bench, spread his arms and raised his eyebrows.
We knew what he was thinking.
When another Hazard cross flashed across the face of the Norwich goal on the hour with Costa again unable to get a final touch, it seemed the sands of time were beginning to run out.
Within four minutes, he, his manager, his team-mates and owner Roman Abramovich were celebrating.
And it should have been 2-0 three minutes later when Kurt Zouma escaped the Canaries defence to flick a Willian cross over Ruddy but on to the bar.
And yet, incredibly, Norwich might have been right back in it at 1-1 soon after when only a late touch by Chelsea keeper Asmir Begovic succeeded in turning a Robbie Brady effort just round the post.
But Chelsea would reassert themselves and were denied after another fine save by Ruddy from Nemanja Matic near the end, following a wonderful, flowing move.
Canaries boss Alex Neil said: “We’ve done it at Liverpool, Manchester City and here — gone to the so-called bigger clubs and put on a show. It is just disappointing we had that one lapse of concentration.”
At the start, we had the Marseillaise in memory of the Paris dead.
Then, fittingly, it was Allez Les Bleus.

DREAM TEAM RATINGS

SUN STAR MAN — Cesc Fabregas (Chelsea)

CHELSEA: Begovic 7, Ivanovic 7, Zouma 7, Terry 7, Kenedy 7, Fabregas 8, Matic 7, Willian 6 (Ramires 6), Hazard 7 (Azpilicueta 6), Pedro 6 (Oscar 6), Costa 8. Subs not used: Traore, Remy, Cahill, Blackman.
Booked: Willian.

NORWICH: Ruddy 7, Wisdom 6, Bennett 6, Bassong 6, Olsson 5, Howson 6 (Hoolahan 6), O’Neil 6, Mulumbu 6 (Dorrans 6), Brady 6, Redmond 6, Mbokani 6 (Jerome 5). Subs not used: Whittaker, Rudd, Lafferty, Odjidja-Ofoe.
Booked: Mulumbu, O’Neil, Bassong, Olsson.

=====================

Express:

Chelsea 1 - Norwich 0: Costa strike gives Mourinho breathing room as Blues win at last
TO START every journey you need to take the first step.

By Tony Stenson

Diego Costa steals narrow win at Stamford Bridge

Have Chelsea began their route back to the top?
There’s still much, much more do but yesterday there was a certain swagger in their play that has been sorely missing of late.
There’s no denying they didn’t deserve to win yesterday but,  it was a another, long agonising wait where again their put their fans through the mincer.
But now there’s hope when it seemed there was none. And the other good news is that they are.
    
Diego Costa was the man who got Chelsea out of a hole when it seemed he was digging deeper into it.

The swarthy striker scored the kind of the goal that was once his trade-mark  but has mysteriously disappeared this season.
He was struck in the 63rd minute to suddenly put a smile on worried faces.
It also woke him up from a long slumber, in which he has fumbled and thrown away chances. None more so than against Norwich.
Mourinho was typically enigmatic, but was delighted to have got back to winning ways

Yet he was very alert to a swift Cesc Fabregas free kick that for once caught Norwich’s splendid defence napping.
Fabregas lifted the ball over a back line still in retreat and Costa controlled the ball, made space for himself and then calmly curved into the far corner of the net.
It was a trip down memory lane and erased all the bad bits that had gone before.

It also inspired several more flurries in which defender Kurt Zouma struck a post from Willian’s free kick and Nemanja Matic had a fierce shot saved by Norwich keeper John Ruddy.
Chelsea fans  chanted ‘champions, champions’ and for  long period that looked a distant memory.
Owner Roman Abramovic, whose billion-dollar yacht  usuallt scuds warm seas at this time of the year, was in the chilly stands offering his support.
When you are in a pickle, you need opponents that are almost cherry picked, or in this case canary picked.

So fly in Norwich.
They hadn’t won in 22 years at Stamford Bridge and have failed to win their last 14 Premier League games in London.
Crossing the Thames proved yesterday to be another painful experience. They gave their all, but it was good enough. 
It wasn’t as if their Canary claws were missing again, more a case of Chelsea finally bouncing off the ropes after weeks of being pummelled
. 
Norwich showed Chelsea are still vulnerable on the break and still lacking quality in midfield.
Eden Hazard’s appetite is returning, producing several mesmerising, runs that was the trade-mark of him winning last season’s Player of the Year award.
What Chelsea did lack again was a striker who disturbed, a player with guile, pace and ability to find openings.
Costa is a bull of a man, a dark, swarthy warrior but he still prefers to batter doors rather than trying to find a better way through. He wasted a 25th minute, by ballooning over from right yards. It summed up his day until his late magical moment.
His earlier attempts had been farcical, even those to try secure a penalty bordered on comical. 
He wasted another chance just before the break, his delayed shot being superbly turned away by John Ruddy’s out-stretched legs.

Few encapsulated Chelsea’s new found spirit better than Brazilian midfield ace Willian. He seemed to be everywhere.
He has been one of the few leading lights in a season cast in shadow and again yesterday he orchestrated from the front.
He was, however, lucky not to receive more than a booking for throwing the ball into Sebastian Bassong’s face when he thought a throw-in went against him.
Bassong deserves credit for not going down and making more of the incident.

It summed Norwich up. Norwich are a tidy, fair, football playing side who you hope will avoid relegation.  They break fast, defend well, but just lack that cutting edge where it matters.
They were also unlucky to come up against a defender like Kurt Zouma, who rarely put a foot, or header, wrong.
Their own defence also made a great fist of it, a colleague was rarely left isolated and they funnelled back in numbers whenever Chelsea were in full flow. 

Manager Jose Mourinho stalked the touchline and in the end threw  his arm up in delight. It was that kind of day...and moment.

Chelsea: Begovic 6; Ivanovic 6, Zouma 7, Terry 7, Kennedy 6; Fabregas 6, Matic 6; Pedro 6 (Oscar 82)5, Willian 8 (Ramires 86)5, Hazard 6 (Azpilicueta 90); Costa 5.

Norwich: Ruddy 7; Wisdom 6, Bennett 6,  Bassong 7,  Olsson 6; Redmond 7, Howson 6 (Hoolahan 73) 5), Mulumbu 6 (Dorrans 73) 5, O’Neil  6, Brady 6;  Mbokani 6.

Star Man: Willian. While others have failed this season, the Brazilian has never faltered and agan he glued the side together.
Referee: C Pawson

=====================

Star:

Chelsea 1 Norwich 0: Mourinho welcomes crucial win but admits title is mission impossible
JOSE MOURINHO last night welcomed back his old Chelsea.

By Jamie Anderson

Then he called on the Tom ‘Mission Impossible’ Cruise spirit to lift them into fourth place.

He said: “Top spot is impossible, maybe Tom Cruise could do it but the gap is huge.

“But we will take it game after game, fourth is not impossible.”

Mourinho waved his arms in delight as the final whistle went. He added: “It was more in relief. The last four minutes were tough.”

He praised goal hero Diego Costa for not giving up after several previous attempts had been fluffed.

Mourinho added: “We all know he has not been fluent. His goal will give him confidence. If I wished for one player to score today it would have been him because he has never stopped working hard.

“If you don’t score goals, you get heavier. Every game that you don’t score goals, you feel five kilos heavier. You get heavy and the pressure is there.
“In the first half he misses two chances. The second one, in the last minute, is really a big one. So it was important for him. It was an important goal and an important result for us – and also for him.
“We should score three, four, five goals, and we didn’t. But we could cope with the last five minutes. We could cope with the pressure.

“The pressure was there – I was feeling it, the players were feeling it too. We coped well with that and we got a result which obviously we needed very, very much.”
Norwich had not won in 22 years at Stamford Bridge and have failed to win their last 14 Premier League games in London.
Crossing the Thames proved to be another painful experience today. They gave their all but it was not good enough.

Costa was the fall guy at first, wasting a 25th-minute chance by ballooning over from eight yards and desperately flinging himself down trying to win a penalty.
It summed up his day until his late magical moment.
He wasted another chance just before the break, his delayed shot being superbly turned away by John Ruddy’s outstretched legs. But few encapsulated Chelsea’s new-found spirit better than Brazilian midfield ace Willian. He seemed to be everywhere.
He has been one of the few leading lights in a season cast in shadow and again today he orchestrated from the front.
He was, however, lucky not to receive more than a booking for throwing the ball into Sebastien Bassong’s face when he thought a throw-in went against him.
Bassong deserves credit for not going down and making more of the incident.

But Costa it was who got Chelsea out of a hole when it seemed he was digging deeper into it.
He was very alert to a swift Cesc Fabregas free-kick that for once caught Norwich’s well-drilled defence napping.

After Fabregas lifted a pass over a backline still in retreat, Costa controlled the ball, made space for himself and then calmly curved into the far corner of the net.
It was a trip down memory lane and erased all the bad bits that had gone before.
The goal also inspired several more flurries in which defender Kurt Zouma struck a post from Willian’s free-kick and Nemanja Matic had a fierce shot saved by Norwich keeper Ruddy.
Norwich manager Alex Neil said: “A denied penalty appeal did not help.

“We have not been on the right end of decisions this season.
“I don’t criticise refs because I feel they have a hard job.
“We had lapses of concentration and that cost us the game.
“Overall, it was disappointing because I felt we deserved more.”
It summed Norwich up. They are a tidy, fair, football-playing side who you hope will avoid relegation. They break fast and defend well, but just lack that cutting edge where it matters.

They were also unlucky to come up against a defender like Kurt Zouma, who rarely put a foot, or head, wrong.
Their own defence also made a great fist of it, defenders were rarely left isolated and they funnelled back in numbers whenever Chelsea were in full flow.
And Diego Costa’s priceless winner might well be the path to redemption for Jose Mourinho’s battle-scarred Blues.
There’s still much, much more do but today there was a certain swagger in their play that has been sorely missing of late.