Chelsea 2-0 West Ham United
Jose Mourinho refused to admit Chelsea are title favourites after their comfortable victory against in-form West Ham.
John Terry’s second goal in as many games and another from Diego Costa just past the hour mark were sufficient for Chelsea to see off the challenge of Sam Allardyce’s side.
Chelsea enjoyed 65% possession in the game and created 28 chances in total, with Mourinho admitting his side were always in control against their London neighbours.
He said: “We played a very good game against a very difficult opponent, we started well and could have scored even before we did. We always had the game in control.
“I’m happy with the way we played, we were very creative with the ball and tried to open a very difficult defensive side, and defensively we coped again like we did against Stoke with their direct football.
“This is the football team that leads the table and leads with all the credit they deserve as we are playing very, very well so we are a title contender but there is still a lot of football to go.”
Chelsea made one change to the team that beat Stoke 2-0 on Monday night with Oscar being recalled in place of Jon Obi-Mikel, and the Brazilian had their first big chance of the game, blazing over from close range after four minutes.
West Ham goalkeeper Adrian was enduring a busy afternoon, keeping out Gary Cahill and Costa before Terry gave the Blues the lead after half an hour, diverting home Costa’s goal-bound header.
West Ham improved after the break but Chelsea sealed the win after 61 minutes as Costa twisted the Hammers’ defenders inside out before firing a low left-footed drive into the corner for his 13th Premier League goal of the season.
Terry shared his manager’s delight at the result that put the Blues six points clear before Manchester City beat West Brom 3-1 later in the day and closed the gap to three points again.
He said: “We’re playing great everyone can see that and if we can continue to do that it will be tough for other teams.”
