Chelsea Power Past Promising Baggies

West Brom finally succumbed late on to the unrelenting second half pressure of Chelsea after taking an early lead at Stamford Bridge, losing 2-1.

Shane Long caught a napping Alex in possession four minutes in, immediately breaking away from the chasing Chelsea back-four and slotting cooly past second string keeper Henrique Hilario to put an early dampener on Chelsea's return to Stamford Bridge.

The Baggies continued to take the game to their hosts early on, pressuring and holding Chelsea at the back waiting to strike on the break with Long and Somen Tchoyi.

Tchoyi should have doubled West Brom's lead after 25 minutes, Brunt's exquisite ball over the top releasing Long who could have laid the ball square on a plate, but the young Irish man's cross was off target and the waiting Tchoyi was unable to reach the poor cross.

Chelsea sparked back into life after the introduction of Florent Malouda, but even after switching from 4-3-3 to 4-4-2 Chelsea's pressure failed to produce an equaliser, only Ashley Cole and Alex efforts forced emphatic saves from Ben Foster in goal.

The pressure continued after the break and it wasn't long before the Blues managed to find an equaliser.


Nicholas Anelka played the ball into the path of a charging Frank Lampard but after being upended in the Baggies box, the lose ball returned to the feet of Anelka. The French international immediately moved into space to fire on goal, Jonas Olsson's deflection diverting the ball past Foster and into the bottom right hand corner.

West Brom's defence hardly had a chance to breath as Foster was called on to deny Anelka once more while Steven Reid and company flung their bodies in front of Malouda and Lampard's efforts on goal as Chelsea went in search of a winner.

Tchoyi forced a spectacular save from Hilario, after he turned and fired from the edge of the Chelsea penalty area but the Baggies chances were few and far between as Chelsea dominated the 2^nd period.

Chelsea's winner finally came just 7 minutes from time. Jose Bosingwa dashed between James Morrison and Nicky Shorey before crossing low across the West Brom box. Malouda arrived at the back post to neatly fire past Foster and give Chelsea a deserved lead.

Peter Odemwingie could have levelled the game late on but his volley from Reid's cross was straight at the waiting Hilario.

West Brom finish their opening two weeks of the season with no points but a pair of promising performances that Roy Hodgson's men can be proud of.