Chelsea 2 - West Ham 0: Initial reaction and community rating form

Don't look now, but all of a sudden Chelsea are closer to second than they are to fifth. Chelsea's win over West Ham has pulled them to within four points of second place Manchester City, and with Tottenham losing, we've leaped back into third heading into the international break. Here are a few thoughts on today's excellent performance:

• First things first. Congratulations to Frank Lampard on scoring his 200th Chelsea goal against his old club. That's an absolutely astonishing feat, especially when taking into account he's spent his entire career as a central midfielder.
• Lampard header aside, our finishing in this one was absolutely dire. There was no question who the better team was for anyone watching that performance, it's a shame that the scoreline didn't indicate as much.
• Rafa was taking an awful lot of criticism for starting the pivot pair of Frank Lampard and Ramires before the game today, but I actually think it was a fairly logical selection. West Ham were never going to try to play through our midfield, they were going to play over the top. Space between the pivot and center backs was likely to be far less of an issue today than it would normally have been, much like the game against West Brom. It made sense, even if that pairing usually isn't pretty.
• As awful as Ba's finishing was in the first half, he did an absolutely fantastic job of getting into dangerous areas and timing his runs to perfection. Now just put the ball in the net and everyone will be happy.
• I think anyone who reads WAGNH regularly knows how I feel about the 50 million pound purchase of Fernando Torres, but that's still only the second dumbest signing made on January 31, 2011. Andy Carroll is just that awful.
• How good is Eden Hazard? Just wow.