Chelsea vs. West Brom

This weekend was an exciting one for Chelsea fans. Manchester city lost to Leicester 4-2 and are now 7 points behind Chelsea. Liverpool suffered a draw against a shaky West Ham side. They sit six points behind Chelsea. Arsenal beat Stoke City by 2 goals as Ozil scored a ridiculous header. Arsenal is the closest team to Chelsea, only 3 points away. The matchup for Chelsea this weekend is against West Brom, who are battling relegation as of right now. The West Brom starting lineup is Forster in goal, Dawson, McAuley, Evans, Nyom; Yacob, Fletcher, Brunt, Morrison, Phillips, and Rondon up front. Antonio Conte makes one change to the unbeatable lineup over the past 8 games by switching Fabregas with Matic. With that being said, the starting lineup for Chelsea is Courtois, Azpilicueta, David Luiz, Cahill, Moses, Kante, Matic, Alonso, Pedro, Costa, Hazard. Costa was named Player of the Month after scoring 2 goals and had 2 assists. He also created 10 chances in the box as well. Pedro was awarded Goal of the Month and Conte was named Manager of the Month, completing the first Chelsea sweep of monthly awards this season.

The game kicked off on a very early Sunday morning at Stamford bridge. The first fifteen minutes were very slow. Chelsea dominated possession, but every time Costa or Hazard would attack there were always 11 West Brom players in the box. To their credit, they were very clinical and physical unlike Manchester City last weekend. 10 minutes later, David Luiz did not control the ball in the

Chelsea half and Rondon pounced on the opportunity. Rondon got into the box and took a low driven shot just wide of the bottom right corner. Courtois had no chance of saving it, so he was very lucky Rondon put it wide. Two minutes later Costa was determined to win the ball from the West Brom defender Evans, and the ball was laid off to Kante. Kante took the shot aiming for the far post but it deflected off Hazard and nearly spun in on the other side of the goal. Forster was closing down the far post and could only pray that it wouldn’t spin in. Luckily, he got his wish and it went out for a goal kick. Besides two corners and set pieces, Chelsea was knocking at West Brom’s defense and started to get frustrated, but they still had a half to go.

The second half got underway and Chelsea immediately went on the attack. They tried everything they could to breach the defensive wall of West Brom players, but to no avail. In the 60th minute, the West Brom player McAuley was already booked before he barreled into Costa outside of the box. Stamford Bridge was outraged by the referee not giving the red card, that could punch a hole in the West Brom defense. However, West Brom surged forward with one of their few attacks and Phillips put in a sharp cross that landed next to Rondon. Rondon put in his own cross to Fletcher, but Cahill soared in to stop a sure goal. Chelsea regained possession and West Brom shrunk back into their own box and tried to hold off the attack. After a goal kick from West Brom was sent all the way to Courtois, the West Brom midfield and wingers all rushed forward to cover some ground between them and the ball. This left the defense wide open as Matic drove the ball over the defense to Costa, who muscled his way into the West Brom box in the 71st minute. Costa then finessed the ball into the top left corner, leaving Forster helpless and West Brom hopeless. That was the last highlight of the match, and it capped off a frustrating but fruitful game, and Chelsea is now top of the EPL table by three points. Next weekend Chelsea plays Sunderland and looks to go undefeated in their past 10 games.