Chelsea v West Brom: The One With The Good, The Bad & The Ugly Subs

Costa wants Filipe Luis' headband back

'I don't know where I'm going from here, but I promise it won't be boring'

Chelsea are nothing if not consistent this season, at least in terms of results. They have won just a single Premier League match each month since the start of the season — and don’t look like they’re about to buck that trend any time soon

Unfortunately, with Crystal Palace being January’s victim supporters have a long old month ahead of them. The teasing glimpses of hope against West Brom last night was almost cruel. But in fairness, we really should all know better by now. With West Brom’s last win at the Bridge coming around the time Monty Python started filming the Life of Brian - there was *some* promise for those little scamps from west London.


Only 3 changes to the starting lineup that beat the mighty Scunthorpe last weekend - John Obi Mikel was reinstated to boss the midfield and Thibaut Courtois stepped in to flap at some shots. While John Terry returned to organise the defence and oversee the proceedings should someone get Zouma'd.

Diego Costa again led the line, and within moments of kick-off announced to the world the 42K+ crowd that he was up for this match and could enter full bastard mode at any given moment. He glided through West Brom’s defence in the opening minutes but just missed the target - or any semblance of it. Nevermind.

Annoyingly the game opened up quickly with shots flying in at either end of the pitch. But it was the unlikeliest figure to break the deadlock. The masked man posing as Chelsea’s right back only went and did a goal. His second in the league ever this season. His first coming in August against — West Brom. Wednesday's effort came about from a) a lovely ball in from one Branislav Ivanovic and b) Diego Costa just missing getting any sort of body part on that ball at all.

Oh the fun and games that were had over the next 13 minutes as Chelsea were ahead. But then Pedro did just about everything he could do completely erase any memory of his debut in the reverse fixture. He does put in a fair bit of effort so I try and give him a bit of a pass for his constant loss of possession - but the mess that led to West Brom's opening goal was more than a little shocking. To Hiddink’s credit he did take off the tiny Spaniard and replace him with the dynamic Kenedy. Arguably the player Guus should have started in the first place. But what’s done is done.

Kenedy had an immediate impact to the side as Chelsea looked more settled and in control with him relieving Pedro of his duties. And he only helped put Chelsea ahead for the second time in this match. Sadly he had to share those honours with Gareth McAuley. So he’ll have to wait a little longer until he can claim his first official big boy goal in the league.

Rather than embrace the stability the introduction of Kenedy and his goal brought Chelsea, with just 12 minutes to go Hiddink went and Guus’d things right up. He wanted to protect Chelsea's lead at home. To West Brom. If he was feeling that desperate, he could have introduced Cahill, changing the shape at the back and then removed Oscar who I'm told was on the pitch but I suspect was just there to make up the numbers.

Instead Hiddink opted to take Fabregas off who’d not only made 90 passes but also had made more tackles than any other Chelsea player. Cesc was replaced by Nemanja Matic. And while I remain a resolute fan despite his dodgy form this term - the combination of the big Serb and Mikel Does. Not. Work. They proved that emphatically against Manchester United. This experiment should have been shot off into space. Chelsea completely lost their shape minds as they only went and let West Brom equalise. Literally the opposite of what Hiddink was trying to do. He’d have even been better off throwing Loic Remy into the mix and try and get a third goal. Baffling decision from the big man.

If Hiddink needed inspiration on how to make a substitiution, he needn't have looked further than to his right. While he may have been temporarily blinded by the white of Pulis' ridiculous trainers, he would have seen a bit of a crafty tacticition at work. While Pulis was forced into an early substitution, that very subsition only went and scored. He was also savvy enough to remove Claudio Yacob from the fray before Anthony Taylor actually decided to do his job. Twice Yacob could have been sent off, but wasn't. Pulis wasn't going to try his luck with a third and was even willing to put much loved Saido Berahino on in his place.

Roll on February Saturday when Romelu Emile Lukaku will get a chance to score his very first goal at Stamford Bridge.

jb xx