Eden Hazard scored his first non-PK league goal for Chelsea (Chelsea FC)
Norwich had the first eleven minutes today at Stamford Bridge. The other 79 belonged firmly to Chelsea. The Blues overcame a bit of a shaky start, especially on the defensive end, to blow out Norwich and keep hold of first place heading into the FIFA international break,
Chelsea looked a little ragged in their own penalty box in the early minutes, and Norwich's Grant Holt, ever the hard worker, was able to to take advantage. In the 11th minute Leon Barnett headed a ball down into the path of Holt, who had way more space than he should have been given. The Norwich forward rifled a shot past Petr Cech and into the bottom corner of the goal to make it 0-1 to the Canaries.
That was all the wake up Chelsea needed though.
Just three minutes later Branislav Ivanovic crossed a ball into the Norwich area where it found the head of Fernando Torres. El Nino calmly deposited it into the back of the net to tie the match at 1-1. It's his 6th goal of the year for the Blues across all competitions. Just two minutes later Eden Hazard nearly put the Blues in front with an excellent volley chance, but he just mishit it and it trickled rather easily into the hands of John Ruddy.
However in the 22nd minute The Blues finally did grab the lead for good. Torres tried a nice overhead kick in the area, but Ruddy managed to parry the shot away. Unfortunately for him, the ball fell to Frank Lampard who volleyed home a cannon shot to make it 2-1 to Chelsea. The Blues would get one more before halftime, as Juan Mata found Hazard with a seeing eye through ball in the 31st minute. Hazard expertly one touched the ball inside the far post to give Chelsea the 3-1 lead going into the break.
Chelsea handled the Canaries pretty easily in the second half as well, though Grant Holt did get a decent look at a header in the 47th minute, only to see it glance a couple yards wide of the post. Ruddy made a a couple of fantastic stops in 1v1 situations. He snuffed out a nice run by Mata in the 58th, and then saved a sure goal from Torres in the 75th.
It was just one minute after that save on Torres that the Blues put the icing on the cake. In the 76th minute Mata flipped a centering ball over the Norwich defense to Ivanovic who volleyed home the final goal of the match to make it 4-1 to Chelsea. After that last strike, Norwich pretty much conceded, subbing out goal scorer Holt, and didn't trouble the Blues at all during the last 14 minutes.
The win keeps Chelsea in 1st place going into the break, regardless of results on Sunday. Norwich is still looking for their first win of the new season, and they remain in the bottom three.
No comments:
Post a Comment