- Hazard opens scoring
- Costa scores 49th PL goal
- Table lead grows to 10
Compact and unbreakable until stoppage time, Chelsea gave West Ham little opportunity to score in a 2-1 derby win at the London Stadium on Monday.
Eden Hazard and Diego Costa scored the Blues goals, as Chelsea went 10 points clear of second-place Spurs with the win.
Manuel Lanzini scored as West Ham stayed 11th with 33 points.
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The most notable moments in the early stages were derby-typical enough; One confrontation left Gary Cahill in need of a new shirt, while Andy Carroll was bloodied in a 50/50 challenge with Victor Moses.
Chelsea scored on the first real moment of danger for either side, with Eden Hazard’s razor-thin onside run meeting Pedro’s through ball. The Belgian then walked around a charging Darren Randolph to side-foot an offering inside the near post.
Mark Noble set Manuel Lanzini up for West Ham’s best chance of the half, but the Argentine attacker lifted his 18-yard attempt a bit over the bar.
It should’ve been 2-0 when Diego Costa couldn’t adjust to Hazard’s square ball, Aaron Cresswell blocked Victor Moses shot, and Randolph did away with a Pedro blast.
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4 - Eden Hazard has scored 4 Premier League goals v West Ham; against no other side has he scored more (also 4 v Newcastle & Spurs). Counter
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) March 6, 2017
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Costa didn’t miss his next best chance, and it came via set piece. Pedro Obiang missed his attempted clearance of a corner, which turned into a flick to Costa.
Cesc Fabregas shouldered a ball out of the 18 moments later, though Andre Marriner wasn’t ready to call a handball.
West Ham had some promising moments as the match approached the hour mark, with Robert Snodgrass chipping a shot over Thibaut Courtois but also missing the far corner. Jose Fonte then headed a Winston Reid cross over the bar.
The chances didn’t all go the way of West Ham the Irons fought to drag a goal back, with Randolph slapping a strong Costa effort wide in the 67th minute.
West Ham was regularly forced to take shots from poor or low-success positions, as Lanzini and Obiang both belted speculative efforts from distance when confounded by compact Chelsea.
Lanzini did score late in stoppage time, besting Nemanja Matic and Gary Cahill to a loose ball after David Luiz forced Andre Ayew into traffic.