Belgian attacking midfielder Hazard passed a late fitness test to start at Stamford Bridge and his influence was key with another stellar display that left the Hammers’ defence chasing his shadow
Browsing: Chelsea
Song is on loan at West Ham from Barcelona, and the fourth-placed Hammers travel to Stamford Bridge hoping to take points off the Premier League leaders
The Blues sit three points clear of second-placed Manchester City heading into the hectic festive programme
The Eagles, who are just one point above the bottom-three, certainly didn’t roll over at the Etihad Stadium and impressed with a familiarly stubborn performance
Mikel, who was in the starting line up, controlled the game from the midfield alongside Nemanja Matic
The Magpies go one better than their North-East rivals, Sunderland, who became the first side to stop Chelsea scoring last weekend
Chelsea are now unbeaten in 21 matches in all competitions
It was the home side who looked the most dangerous in the opening exchanges
With table-topping Chelsea held to a 0-0 draw against Sunderland on Saturday, victory for City at fortress St Mary’s took them above Southampton into second place with 27 points from 13 matches, six behind Jose Mourinho’s pacesetters
But Chelsea were unable to break down dogged Sunderland, who held the Blues without a goal for the first time in 20 matches in all competitions this season
With the minimum of fuss he chested down and volleyed home Oscar’s cross after a disastrous attempt to play offside that left the visiting team stationary, appealing for in vain for a flag
West Brom came agonisingly close to winning at Chelsea last season
A late own goal from Shrews defender, Jermaine Grandison, handed victory to Mourinho’s men but the Portuguese boss was quick to hail experienced Mikel for his solid displays despite a lack of playing time in recent weeks
Manchester United started the first-half strongly, but couldn’t make their opportunities count
Chelsea had opened their Group G campaign with a 1-1 draw at home to Schalke, but a 1-0 win at Sporting Lisbon and the thumping of Maribor leaves the Blues in prime position ahead of the November 5 trip to Slovenia
Chelsea extended their unbeaten start to the Barclays Premier League season and their lead at the top of the table to five points from Manchester City after Eden Hazard, with a penalty, and Diego Costa scored in a match which saw the managers’ feud turn physical
Courtois played for just 23 minutes at Stamford Bridge against Arsenal before he was taken to the hospital
Hazard converted a penalty to give his side the lead before Costa fired in his ninth league goal of the season to secure all three points for Jose Mourinho’s men
The Stoke City’s Chelsea loanee put in some excellent performances in the course of September, impressing against QPR and setting up the winning goal by Peter Crouch against Newcastle recently
Nevertheless, the Chelsea loanee, who grabbed an assist for Peter Crouch’s header prior to the incident, shelved his personal grievances and acknowledged the importance of the win