Moses shines in Chelsea win

Nigerian international, Victor Moses, shone like a million stars as Chelsea handed Newcastle a 3-1 defeat at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.
The Blues needed to come from behind after Dwight Gayle had given the out-of-form Magpies a shock lead in West London, but Eden Hazard’s brace either side of an Alvaro Morata head sealed a sixth win in the space of seven Premier League games for Chelsea.
The win sees the hosts temporarily close the gap on leaders Manchester City to eight points, whereas Newcastle have now taken only one point from the last 18 on offer in the Premier League.
Both sides had half-chances in the opening exchanges as Mikel Merino’s tame effort was collected by Thibaut Courtois before Morata lashed a snapshot off target from a tight angle, but it was the Magpies who took a shock lead after 12 minutes.
Newcastle’s high press yielded rewards as Marcos Alonso sold Courtois short with a back-pass, forcing the keeper to come off his line and get to the ball ahead of Jacob Murphy.
However, his touch only took the ball to the feet of Gayle, who was left with a simple finish into the empty net.
The equaliser seemed inevitable, and sure enough it arrived just one minute after Chelsea had struck the woodwork when Florian Lejeune’s clearance only fell as far as Hazard, who fired a volley into the ground and bouncing past a helpless Darlow.
There was no let-up from the hosts, though, and they had completed the comeback shortly after the half-hour mark when Morata converted a powerful Moses cross from close range after both Lejeune and Chancel Mbemba had failed to intercept the ball.
Chelsea continued to dominate, though, and Hazard looked the most likely to give his side a cushion during another dazzling display from the Belgian.
Moses then glanced a header straight at the Newcastle keeper from Azpilicueta’s cross, but the spotlight was soon back on Hazard as he forced another stop from Darlow before narrowly missing the chance to get on the end of a one-two with Drinkwater.
The Belgian’s second goal eventually arrived from the penalty spot with a little over 15 minutes remaining, sending Darlow the wrong way with a cheeky Panenka dink after Matt Ritchie had brought Moses to ground inside the area.
Hazard could have capped his impressive individual performance with a hat-trick just two minutes later having been slid through by Morata, but Darlow stayed on his feet this time to deny another chipped effort from the winger.
The Magpies have now lost five of their last six league games and have only won one of their last 19 away games in the top flight, whereas Chelsea record a fifth consecutive win at Stamford Bridge across all competitions.