Chelsea 2-0 West Ham, Premier League: Post-match reaction

It was a rather nice surprise for Chelsea fans to see the names of Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Callum Hudson-Odoi in our starting lineup twice in a row, after the young upstarts ran the show against Brighton last Wednesday. But the spotlight quickly turned towards Eden Hazard, who was just in one of those days where you cannot stop him without resorting to dirty fouls. Something that West Ham’s Angelo Ogbonna learned only 10 minutes into the match, after having to defend against the Belgian Blue devil.

But that was only foreshadowing to what would happen next. 15 minutes after trouncing Ogbonna, Eden would go on to destroy West Ham’s entire midfield and defence, leaving them unresponsive to his marauding run through the centre as they simply stood back and watched him carving their third open with their mouths open. An instant classic that we will see repeated and remembered throughout the ages on Chelsea TV.

In the second half, West Ham tried to turn on the heat and hit close to the net in a few occasions. Chelsea in the meantime would go on to waste several chances until the very last minute, when Hazard — of course! — closed the deal with a second goal thanks to a great assist from Ross Barkley.

And top four is ours!

Carefree!

• Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ruben Loftus-Cheek were not dropped! This is not a drill!
• We will really miss Eden Hazard, won’t we?
• Clean sheet: kept!
• Subs are Ross Barkley in for Loftus-Cheek, Olivier Giroud in place of Higuaín and Pedro for CHO.
• Next up: Slavia Prague for the Europa League quarterfinal.
• KTBFFH!

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