Thibaut Courtois On Fire As Chelsea Beat West Ham In A Cracker Of A Game

Thibaut Courtois On Fire As Chelsea Beat West Ham In A Cracker Of A Game

In the East meets West London derby, Jose Mourinho’s West London Chelsea outfit overcame a spirited West Ham side who did the East of the city proud in this brilliant game which truly was a superb advert for the Barclays Premier League. In a game which could easily have been a hangover for Chelsea after their Capital One Cup victory on Sunday, the blues overcame a West Ham side who played out of their skins in the game at the Boleyn Ground. The hammers were relentless and created numerous quality chances throughout the game but either Courtois pulled off one of his many worldie’s on the night or one of the Chelsea defenders made a last ditch goal saving tackle or West Ham contrived to somehow miss chance after chance in match that was end to end for much of it.

Chelsea were resolute in defence and when it really counted they so often managed to snuff out the West Ham threat with Sakho, Valencia and Nolan amongst others all going close. Chelsea had their chances too and when they did strike, their goal was a thing of real class. After Chelsea won possession following a West Ham corner, Hazard broke at pace before he decided to pull up short of the penalty box finding Fabregas who started a string of 5 or 6 quick incisive passes around the box before Ramires was released on the right hand side and the Brazilian looked up and delivered the perfect cross for a still running Hazard to meet it with the perfect header leaving Adrian in the West Ham goal no chance. It really was a beautiful team goal and it came after a period of West Ham pressure.

It was a performance of Champions you could say as West Ham threw everything at Chelsea who soaked it all up and it was easy to see why the Hammers are contesting for a place in Europe – Allardyce’s men are a GOOD side so this was a very hard-earned 3 points for Chelsea and they worked their socks off to get it. Another positive was the performance of young Kurt Zouma who continued in the defensive midfield role and provided more evidence that sugggests the 20 year old is going to develop into quite a player. With Zouma being compared to Chelsea and France legend Marcel Desailly in various quarters, his stock is certainly rising and it looks like he is a player Mourinho is happy with which bodes well for the seasons ahead.

When you look back on all the chances in the game it is hard to understand how it was only a 1-0 Chelsea win but Adrian in the West Ham goal played very well yet Thibaut Courtois was absolutely out of this world in the Chelsea goal and showed that it is hard to imagine a better goalkeeper in the world at the moment. It was one of the most entertaining games I have seen this season and it seems that Chelsea are marching on to the title and it looks like it really is the Blues’ title to lose.