Player Ratings: Chelsea's best play to their best against West Ham United

He may be the second leading scorer in the Premier League, but this is only Diego Costa's third Man of the Match award as voted by all y'all.  And even this one's just by a hair.

It's not that Diego's been playing badly; he's very near the top of the average ratings chart for the season, but he hasn't truly been himself lately and has put in several uninspiring shifts, especially away from home.  But against West Ham, we saw the return of the Costa that we saw early in the season.  Constantly moving, constantly looking for the ball, constantly harassing the defenders, and finishing (sort of) clinically.

With his 13th league goal, he leads all Premier League players in goals scored from open play.  Absent any significant injuries, he's a shoo-in to be our first 20-goal scorer in the league and 30-goal scorer in all competitions since Didier Drogba did it in 2009/10.  What I'm trying to say is that on the day the club have announced the permanent departure of Fernando Torres, it's only fitting that DIEGO DIEGO DIEGO DIEGO Costa wins the Man of the Match award.

For a moment there, it looked like Hazard might be entering a bit of a slump, with less than stellar performances away to Sunderland and Newcastle United (which, in turn, the rest of the team matched as well) sapping some our confidence.

At that point, Mourinho did the unthinkable, and gave Hazard a full day's rest.  Since his non-involvement against Sporting, Hazard has put together back-to-back-to-back-to-back performances rated 8.0 or higher.  Amazing what a day of rest can do!

So, just another standard day then of Matić dominating the midfield (with a special shout-out to Fàbregas and his ridiculous 144 touches).  Ho-hum.  Were it not for some fancy Adrian acrobatics for the second straight West Ham game at Stamford Bridge, Matic could've even had a goal.

This video is from Monday night's Stoke game, but if you haven't yet seen, it's worth your time.  Here are Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher talking about the big man in the middle.