West Ham 0 Chelsea 3

Last updated : 23 November 2013 By Paul Lagan

 

Frank Lampard likes nothing better than scoring against his old club West Ham and he hit a brace at Upton Park thIs evening as the Blues ran out extremely easy winner by three goals to nil.
The west Londoners attitude was flawless from the first whistle.

A goal in each half by Lampard, the first from the penalty spot on 20 minutes, his second with eight minutes to go.

In-between Oscar rammed home the second on 33 minutes.
Had Chelsea hit a fourth they would have gone above Liverpool to second place but have to be content with third spot for now.

West Ham, for whatever reason, poor team selection or simply overawed by the London neighbours never really go into the game.

Their fans booed them off at the end of the game, but by then, the ground was half-empty.
Chelsea had the first effort of the half on five minutes, when a quick break saw Eden Hazard , free on the left, but his drive into the West Ham area was intercepted by James Collins for a corner.

Samuel Eto'o was unlucky a minute later when another driving run by Hazard saw the Cameroon striker inside the home side's penalty area, but the ball was tipped away from him at the last moment, just as he was about to strike the ball.

Oscar had the next effort on goal, but failed to properly curl the ball wide of Jussi Jaaskelainen, instead the ball was well wide of the West Ham goal on 16 minutes.

Quite how the Chelsea defence kept out West Ham's next attack is unclear, a series of last-gasp interceptions, where ex-Blue Joe Cole saw his goal-bound effort cleared away by John Terry.

The move started from a sloppy miss place pass fromEto.

But a minute, just as the clock ticked over the 20 minute mark, Chelsea were awarded a penalty by referee Chris Foy when Jaaskelainen bundled Oscar to the floor after a quick-counter attack from the visitors.

Up stepped ex-hammer Frank Lampard to blast the ball high and wide of the goalkeeper's desperate dive to put Chelsea 1-0 up.

Lampard almost struck again, on 24 minutes when Oscar won the ball on the right and clipped the ball into the area, where Lampard was lurking, but he scuffed his right-footer and the Finish goalkeeper easily snaffled the ball up.

Chelsea's dominance should have wielded more than the one goal. Lampard could have had a hat- trick on 30 minutes, but his header, unchallenged, just inside the penalty area from a deep Hazard cross, inched wide of the West Ham goal.

The second duly came however on 33 minutes when, Oscar drove home from just outside the West Ham penalty area, but it was the multi-pass build- up to the goal which was exceptional. The ball move red forward, sideways, and back again before being fed into midfield to Hazard. The Belgium midfielder produced an exquisite pass to Oscar, who had a difficult task still to drill the ball home, but he did it with aplomb.

West Ham boss Sam Allardyce then was presented with boos from his own supporters when he replaced Jose Cole and Jack Collison with five minutes of the half to go. On car Modobo Maiga, and Mohamed Diame.
West ham started the second half with a degree of purpose, after all it could not have for any worse.

A couple of pressure plays forced Chelsea into reguard action, but the lack any finish allowed the Blues to comfortably hold the Hammers at bay.

With the pressure relieved, it was the away side who should have increased their lead on 53 minutes when a header from Gary Cahill was hacked off the line by Mark Noble.
Jaaskelainen then dived low to his left to grab a La pard pile-driver.

This was quickly followed by Oscar's half-volley which went inches wide after another excellent build-up play.

An attempted sisscor-kick by Maiga on 62 minutes livened up the home fans for a second, but the effort was a bit half-hearted and failed to have the des is effect, instead the ball glanced off his boot for a goal-kick.

A wonderfully inspired run on the byline from Guy Dembele, who zipped round three Chelsea players almost reaped dividends, on 65 minutes, as his shot across goal fell to Maiga, but his first-time effort demo eight yards out went just wide of Petr Cech's left upright.
Samuel Eto'o was replaced by Demba Ba with 11 minutes of the half remaining.

While West Ham had the lions share of the half in terms of possession, their fleeting chances were half ones at best. One such case came when Branislav Ivanovic nipped it at his near pot to deflect away a fine byline cross. Substitute Matt Mavis was ready to head in but was prevented.

But Chelsea's attitude was spot on all game and number three came eight minutes to go with that man Lampard on hand to drill the ball home from just inside the West Ham penalty area.

A quick breakaway almost saw Ba finish off a move for number four after Substitute Andre Schurrle raced clear.

But Jaaskelainen was equal to the low shot.

The Blues simply walked the. Lock down, safe in the knowledge that three vital Premier
Eagle points have been won post international duty.

They head off to Basle in Switzerland early next week to hopefully win their Champions League group.

 

Teams:
Chelsea, Cech, Ivanovic, , Ramires, Lampard, Oscar, Mikel, Hazard, Cahill, Terry, Azpilicuet , Eto,
Subs Schwarzer, Ashley Cole, Essien, Mata, Schurrle, Ba, Willian.

West Ham United, Jaaskelainen, Nolan, Tomkins, Collison, Morrison, Noble, O'Brien, Collins, Demel, Downing, Joe Cole
Subs, McCartney, Jarvis, Maiga, Adrian, Taylor, Diame, Carlton Cole

Referee: Chris Foy