SOCCER/West Ham Utd 1 Chelsea 4:Chelsea showed all the attributes that have made them Premiership champions in the past two seasons. West Ham, for all their early spirit, displayed the failings that will almost certainly see them relegated. With four games to play, the side are five points adrift of the safety of 17th place, occupied by Sheffield United.
The visitors sustained their close pursuit of leaders Manchester United, with the gap now at three points once more. Jose Mourinho even flaunted the depth of his squad, with five changes from the FA Cup semi-final line-up. Shaun Wright-Phillips did not so much slip back into the first XI as dominate it. His pair of goals were his first in the Premiership for two years.
West Ham, as has been established for a long time, are breached much too easily. Here, however, there was a sturdiness of purpose in the first half. Perhaps Alan Curbishley's rejigging of the defence, with Lucas Neill switched from full back to centre half, was of value.
Chelsea were not exactly on the verge of collapse in the spell before Wright-Phillips opened the scoring, but a few players must have gulped when James Collins claimed that his 28th-minute header had been blocked intentionally by the arm of Didier Drogba inside the area.
The two goals from Wright-Phillips, interrupted by Carlos Tevez's equaliser, were a reprimand to those who suppose there is no virtuosity to Chelsea.
Whatever the financial rewards, the move to London from Manchester City stripped Wright-Phillips of stardom and it is only lately, with a beautiful clincher in the FA Cup replay at Tottenham, that he has hinted at a recovery. Without the need to refresh the line-up after Sunday's semi-final in that same tournament, he might not have been allowed to start at Upton Park.
After 31 minutes, he cut inside Jonathan Spector and, from the Chelsea left, slotted a low shot just inside the far post. The visitors, pegged back as they had been, had mustered a greater menace. With eight minutes gone, for instance, Frank Lampard had passed to the overlapping centre half Ricardo Carvalho, whose cut-back might have been converted first by Salomon Kalou and then by Didier Drogba, though they were each foiled.
There was more ebb and flow to the contest than Chelsea normally allow, perhaps because Jose Mourinho had removed Michael Ballack from the midfield to let him loll on the bench.
Whatever the explanation, Chelsea conceded an equaliser within four minutes, the first league goal they had conceded in the Premiership since the defeat at Liverpool on January 20th.
At least it was distinguished, with Tevez bending a finish low into the corner of the net from around 20 yards. That was expert, but it was equalled if not bettered in technique by Wright-Phillips. Wayne Bridge crossed from the left in the 34th minute and the winger opened up his body to set himself for the right-footed volley past Rob Green.
A team's morale is always venerable when a fine opportunity to level is scorned. Two minutes after the interval, West Ham's Bobby Zamora seemed barely to see a low ball from George McCartney and it ballooned from him to Cech.
That sort of incident usually paves the way to more suffering. In the 51st minute Drogba could not finish in the midst of a scramble following a Lampard free-kick, but Kalou forced the ball in. With 62 minutes gone, Drogba himself scored by putting a shot through the legs of Green after a slip by Lucas Neill.
Chelsea had tamed the game completely. Mourinho even felt free to remove Drogba, who has been absolutely essential on so many other days this season. The Ivorian's place went to Joe Cole and the home crowd are no more reconciled with their former player, even though he has just paid the £20,000 needed so that Peter Brabrook, one of his coaches when he was a youngster at Upton Park, can have knee surgery.
Guardian Service
WEST HAM UTD: Green, Spector, Collins, Neill, McCartney, Benayoun, Reo-Coker (Mullins 76), Noble, Boa Morte, Tevez (Blanco 83), Zamora (Cole 72). Subs not used: Carroll, Davenport. Booked: Reo-Coker, Neill, Mullins, McCartney, Boa Morte.
CHELSEA: Cech, Diarra (Ferreira 46), Carvalho, Terry, Bridge, Essien, Mikel, Lampard (Ballack 78), Wright-Phillips, Drogba (Joe Cole 67), Kalou. Subs not used: Cudicini, Makelele. Booked: Diarra, Drogba.
Referee: M Dean (Wirral).
