{"id":77477,"date":"2014-12-26T17:47:27","date_gmt":"2014-12-26T17:47:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=77477"},"modified":"2014-12-26T17:47:27","modified_gmt":"2014-12-26T17:47:27","slug":"chelsea-good-west-ham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=77477","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea too good for West Ham"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leaders Chelsea tightened their grip on the Premier League’s top spot with a commanding victory over West Ham.<\/p>\n

The Blues had already come close through Oscar and Gary Cahill when John Terry turned in Diego Costa’s header from close range.<\/p>\n

After a tame first half, West Ham offered more in the second, but their hopes were snuffed out by Costa’s drilled finish just after the hour.<\/p>\n

Morgan Amalfitano hit the post late on but Chelsea racked up 28 shots at goal.<\/p>\n

Chelsea look set to finish 2014 at the top of the table – and the quality of their performance suggested they may well still be there in May.<\/p>\n

Their manager Jose Mourinho accused West Ham of playing “19th century football” after the teams’ goalless draw at Stamford Bridge in January,<\/a> but this Blues side, with the attacking threat Costa and Cesc Fabregas, never looked like being denied.<\/p>\n

The visitors’ style has taken a quantum leap forward since – with 29 goals in their first 17 league games this season compared to 14 over the same period in 2013-14 – but it was clear as soon as the team sheets were published that Sam Allardyce intended a defensive performance similar to 11 months ago.<\/p>\n

The West Ham manager dropped Alex Song and Diafra Sakho to the bench ahead of Sunday’s meeting with Arsenal and told television before kick-off that “we have to stop Chelsea – it’s as simple as that”.<\/p>\n

His ambitions were almost undermined by Carl Jenkinson’s lapse inside the first five minutes.<\/p>\n

The right-back, on loan from Arsenal, allowed Oscar to dart in behind him and was relieved to see the Brazilian blaze over from six yards out after latching onto Willian’s floated ball in.<\/p>\n

But it was only a temporary reprieve.<\/p>\n

Gary Cahill thumped a shot straight at Adrian and the seemingly inevitable Chelsea opener arrived after Eden Hazard almost wriggled his way in on goal.<\/p>\n

James Collins’ last-ditch tackle had denied the Belgian on that occasion, but from the resulting corner the defender lost Terry, who was free to poke in as Costa flicked on.<\/p>\n

The Blues did not let up and Costa punted over when well placed before Branislav Ivanovic appealed in vain for a penalty as he went down under Andy Carroll’s challenge.<\/p>\n

For West Ham, with only 27% of possession, Chelsea’s slim scoreboard advantage was the only positive to take from the first half.<\/p>\n

The away side briefly flickered into life after the break and Terry had to be alert to cover across and block Valencia’s route to goal.<\/p>\n

Sakho and Song were introduced for the Hammers but, just as a few concerns could be felt around Stamford Bridge, Costa’s dead-eyed finish ensured the home fans could enjoy the final half hour in comfort.<\/p>\n

The Spain international’s dummy took Tomkins, Winston Reid and Carl Jenkinson out of the game before his fierce low drive did likewise for goalkeeper Adrian.<\/p>\n

A late cameo for Didier Drogba was applauded warmly and West Ham were denied a late mood-killing consolation as Amalfitano’s flick hit the woodwork after a neat run took him past Terry and Cahill.<\/p>\n

\"Diego<\/p>\n

Diego Costa’s goal was his 13th Premier League strike of the season<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"John<\/p>\n

Terry – on 36 goals – is two behind David Unsworth as the highest scoring defender in Premier League history.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Branislav<\/p>\n

Andy Carroll (left) and Branislav Ivanovic (right) disagreed over the latter’s first-half penalty appeal<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Chelsea<\/p>\n

Both teams took part in a minute’s applause before kick-off to remember players who served in the First World War.<\/p>\n

\n

Source: BBC<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leaders Chelsea tightened their grip on the Premier League’s top spot with a commanding victory over West Ham. The Blues had already come close through Oscar and Gary Cahill when John Terry turned in Diego Costa’s header from close range. After a tame first half, West Ham offered more in the second, but their hopes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":77478,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[29,3],"class_list":["post-77477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dr-mahamudu-bawumia","tag-ghana-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=77477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/77478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=77477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=77477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=77477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}