Chelsea bounced back from Saturday’s defeat with a hard-fought, important 1-0 victory at home to Norwich City.
Olivier Giroud scored the only goal of the match, in what was hardly a vintage performance from the Blues, who looked nervous against a defensively-orientated visiting side playing for nothing but personal pride.
It was fair to say that Chelsea came into the game counting their lucky stars, after Top Four rivals Leicester City and Manchester United both dropped points at the weekend providing the Blues with a couple of ‘Get out of Jail Free cards’ following their criminal performance at Sheffield United.
Manager Frank Lampard made a point of highlighting that he ‘wouldn’t forget the performances’ of some his players in that 3-0 defeat at Bramall Lane, and his squad selection backed his words as he made five changes to the lineup.
Rudiger and Alonso came into defence for Christensen and James, whilst Abraham, who scored twice against Norwich in August’s reverse fixture, was replaced by Giroud up front. In midfield, it was Kovacic and Loftus-Cheek in for Mount and Barkley.
Returning on the bench was Fikayo Tomori, one of the standout performers at the start of the season, after an injury that has kept him out since the return of Premier League football last month.
The only performance of the weekend worse than Chelsea’s against Sheffield on Saturday was probably Norwich’s against West Ham, a 4-0 home defeat that confirmed their relegation back to the Championship. Despite that, it meant the visitors had nothing to lose, and would be trying to enjoy one of their last games in the top flight for the foreseeable future.
As most would have expected, as the game started it was all Chelsea, with one of last seasons most favoured midfield trios of Jorginho, Loftus-Cheek and Kovacic helping the side to dominate the ball early on.
Although the home side dominated the ball, a lack of creativity meant the game was void of chances for the first 20 minutes, before Giroud will have felt he should’ve done better after he latched on to a Jorginho ball over the top – but failed to make good contact with the ball and left Krul with a simple save to make.
The effort from the Frenchman was the only notable moment before the first half water break, an opportunity Frank Lampard must have have taken to tell his team to up the intensity
One player Chelsea fans hope will never be lacking in creativity was watching on from the stands – appropriately donning a sleek Chelsea-branded face mask – new signing Hakim Ziyech, who arrived at the club this week after his move from Ajax.
The Blues didn’t have to wait too long for their first chance after the water break, and Giroud was on the end of it again after good work down the right by captain Azpilicueta. The Spaniard did well to lose his man and find a good low cross in towards the penalty spot, where Giroud took it early on his right foot but struck high and wide.
In typical fashion during ‘Project Restart’, it was Christian Pulisic next to threaten the Norwich goal, and his brilliant chest, swivel and hit from the edge of the box was by far the closest Chelsea got to breaking the deadlock. A sweet strike on his weaker left foot, Tim Krul was sprawling to tip it over the bar.
That chance acted as the catalyst for Chelsea, with the resulting corner seeing Rudiger have a headed effort he should’ve scored from, and a couple of longer distance efforts needing saving or deflecting behind.
Just as the pace began to slow down again and the half-time break approached, Chelsea got that all important goal to make it 1-0.
The Blues had to be patient as Norwich defended very well, but after getting his eye in with the two earlier chances, Giroud popped up on the edge of the six-yard box to dive in and nod home from an inviting Pulisc cross.
Chelsea fans everywhere will have breathed a collective sigh of relief as the game had seemingly began to slip into a familiar toothless fashion. That relief was palpable in the Frenchman’s celebration, punching the air as he redeemed his missed chances.
The goal saw Chelsea go into the break in the lead, however most fans of a Chelsea affiliation will have hoped it didn’t change Lampard’s team talk too much. The way the season has gone, it was important that Chelsea pressed on in the second-half and looked to kill the game off as soon as possible.
A win would see the Blues go four points clear in third place, putting pressure on Leicester and United who would both play on Thursday knowing they need to win to stay hot on Chelsea’s heels – ahead of a very tough fixture next fixture away to Liverpool.
Willian had Chelsea’s first chance of the second half, winning the ball well on the edge of Norwich’s penalty area and driving at the defence, but in typical Willian hot-cold fashion, the winger made the wrong choice and rather than playing Pulisic in he saw his shot deflected over the bar.
Despite it still being early in the second half, the game began to open up slightly as Norwich started to become more adventurous – and it took a very important Rudiger challenge to stop Onel Hernandez going through on goal for Norwich: a warning sign for Chelsea.
A rare name on the scoresheet and an unlikely scorer of a spectacular goal almost did just that before the second-half drinks break, after Alonso’s cut back cross missed everybody and ran through to Azpilicueta on the opposite flank, who hit a left-footed curling effort that sailed just over Krul’s crossbar.
Still continuing his return to full match fitness after a year long injury lay off, Ruben Loftus-Cheek was replaced after a solid 65 minute display by Ross Barkley, a player who has been through patches of good and bad form since football’s restart, synonymous of his entire career.
As the game approached a vital stage and Chelsea pushed for a second, Giroud tried to return the favour for Pulisic with a ball over the top for the American, ultimately leading to a tame effort that Krul got down to push away.
Marcos Alonso, never shy of popping up in questionably high up attacking positions, was the next to force the Norwich keeper into action, ghosting in at the back post to direct a header goalwards but to no avail.
You would imagine that a lot of the Chelsea players would have been watching as Michael Obafemi stole a 96th minute equaliser for Southampton at Old Trafford on Monday night, and the only way they could guarantee themselves not to fall into the same trap would be doubling their lead. Yet as the game approached the final five minutes, the nerves could be felt even in an empty Stamford Bridge.
Frank Lampard looked towards his ever-trusted youngsters to help finish the job, replacing Alonso and Pulisic with Reece James and Callum Hudson-Odoi. Both were lively as they came off the bench, with James looking particularly sharp, delivering multiple good crosses in a short cameo.
In his final action before leaving the pitch in exchange for Tammy Abraham, Giroud almost doubled his tally after some sharp passing saw Willian with acres of room on the right hand side, and his low near-post drive was met by Giroud who was unlucky not to turn it into the net. On another day the potential match winner could’ve had himself a hat-trick.
Quiet for the majority of evening, Willian almost secured the victory with a free-kick from the left hand side, whipping the ball over the wall before Krul parried away to safety.
As has been the case for Chelsea fans on numerous occasions this season, any Norwich possession during the last knockings of the game could have had you covering your eyes and hoping for the best, after a constant theme of giving up points from winning positions.
Thankfully for those in blue, the final moments of additional time lacked drama and saw the game fizzle out as Chelsea secured a vital three points.
A far from convincing result, however at this stage of the season, it’s the points that are the only important thing.
Match Stats
Player Ratings
Concluding Remarks
As previously mentioned, the result sees Frank Lampard’s side strengthen their grip on third place, four points clear of Leicester and Manchester United in the race for Champions League football, which is going right down to the wire.
Attention can now briefly switch from the top four battle, as Chelsea travel to Wembley on Sunday for the FA Cup semi-final against Manchester United.
Written by Dom Domaingue
Edited by Rob Pratley