Chelsea beat Norwich City 3-1 at Carrow Road to strengthen their grip on third-place in the Premier League table after a damaging day for the club off the pitch.
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After owner Roman Abramovich was sanctioned by the UK government, which has huge impacts for Chelsea as a club, Thomas Tuchel’s side were focused and fired up as they grabbed a fourth-straight victory in the Premier League.
Trevoh Chalobah and Mason Mount put Chelsea 2-0 up early on but Norwich hung in there and Teemu Pukki pulled one back in the second half to set up a tense finish. Kai Havertz sealed the win for Chelsea late on, as Thomas Tuchel’s side just had that extra bit of class throughout.
With the win Chelsea move on to 56 points for the season, while Norwich remain bottom of the table on 17 points and are five points from safety and have played more games than their relegation rivals.
Norwich vs Chelsea final score, stats
Norwich 1-3 Chelsea
Goals scored: Chalobah 3', Mount 14', Pukki 69', Havertz 90'
Shots: Norwich 8, Chelsea 15
Shots on target: Norwich 3, Chelsea 7
Possession: Norwich 33, Chelsea 67
Three things we learned from Norwich vs Chelsea
1. Focused Blues set tone early: After a tough day off the pitch, Chelsea’s players did the business on it. They were 2-0 up early and it could have been more, as they set the tone for a pretty routine win. Their class on the pitch was evident throughout and they always looked like they could take things up a few gears. With so much uncertainty off the pitch, on it Chelsea look settled and sure of a third-place finish.
2. Mount, Havertz sparkle: With Romelu Lukaku starting on the bench, the attacking duo of Mount and Havertz looked sharp and combined well once again. Christian Pulisic was out due to injury but Timo Werner came in and did a job as Chelsea’s fluid movement and interchanging attackers was too much for Norwich to handle. Havertz set up Mount for his goal and the latter almost returned the favor, but Havertz did get his goal late on and the two silky attacking midfielders are really providing the finishing touch Chelsea need.
3. Battling Norwich won’t stay up: This summed up what we know about Norwich: they battle hard and can dig in, but they just don’t have enough quality to stay in the Premier League. Dean Smith can start preparing for the Championship because with 10 games to go, Norwich need a miracle to stay in the Premier League this season. Once again their recruitment just hasn’t been good enough as they went for quantity over quality last summer and their squad just isn’t able to put together a solid 90 minutes in the Premier League. The yo-yo life of the Canaries will continue.
Man of the Match: Kai Havertz - Silky throughout and oozed class whenever he got on the ball.
Blues make most of fast start
Chelsea got off to the best possible start as a corner from the left was headed home by Trevoh Chalobah to make it 1-0.
Moments later Kai Havertz and Timo Werner both almost made it 2-0 as Norwich were all over the place early on. Tim Krul denied Kai Havertz for a second time early on with a low stop, as Chelsea were rampant.
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Mount curled home a beauty to make it 2-0 and then fired another shot over, as Christoph Zimmermann had a deflected effort saved by Edouard Mendy in-between.
Canaries put up a fight
Norwich did their best to stay in the game as Chelsea had plenty of the ball but the hosts dug in.
The Canaries wanted a handball in the penalty box as Chalobah’s outstretched arm blocked a cross, and after a VAR check on the pitch-side monitor, a penalty was given.
Pukki slotted home the penalty kick to make it 2-1 and set up a tense finish for Chelsea. Kenny McLean went close with a header and Norwich pushed hard for an equalizer late on.
Mount and Havertz also combined to seal the win, then substitute N’Golo Kante set up Havertz to make it 3-1 as Chelsea secured all three points.
