No disgrace as Hazard beats the Hammers

Eden Hazard 2 West Ham 0

Two brilliant goals from the Belgian saw off the Irons but make no mistake Paul Merson, our boys have certainly not gone on their holidays.

Hazard waltzed past three or four challenges for his first and slipped home the second in injury time to give Chelsea the victory in the 100th meeting between the two sides.

But the Hammers  defended really well in the first half to keep the score down to 1-0 and the major reason for that was the return of Fabian Balbuena who had a top game.

Manuel Pellegrini pulled off Chicharito at the break and with Snodgrass replacing him, Arnautovic became the focal point of the attack and things improved considerably.

Indeed this was the striker’s best 45 minutes since January as he produced some fine running off the ball to set up a fierce Lanzini shot whilst directing a header form a free kick just wide.

Ryan Fredericks did well down the right side and a word for Mark Noble who was  called on to cover for the two high full backs – the skipper did well.

Declan Rice found himself under a lot of pressure but had a decent game although Anderson was again frustrating and often casual in his passing and too easily brushed off the ball.

There was no disgrace in this performance which leaves the  club in 11th place but the Hammers form on the road this year is awful.

Tonight was all about Hazard – like many teams before us we simply couldn’t cope with the brilliant Belgian.