Eden Hazard and Fernando Torres’ goals helped Chelsea return to the top of the Premier League standing ahead of Manchester City’s trip to Newcastle on Sunday and Arsenal’s visit of Vila Park.
Hazard opened scoring in the 56th minute when he made his way along the goal area before powering home a low shot.
Torres completed score for the Blues in the 87th minute.
Chelsea were excellent defensively and both goals were of real quality. The win takes Jose Mourinho’s men to the summit for at least 24 hours with 56 points from 21 games.
Branislav Ivanovic was still missing from Chelsea’s starting lineup due to injury while the Portuguese boss opted for David Luis instead of John Obi Mikel in the midfield as Juan Mata sat out the whole 90 minutes again. Torres started ahead of Samuel Eto’O up front.
Belgian playmaker Hazard was a torn in Steve Bruce’s team’s defense throughout the encounter but it was Oscar who came close to opening scoring in the first-half.
The Brazilian had the time to set himself inside the area after a Hazard pull-back. Instead of picking a corner he fired into the gloves of a spread-eagled Allan McGregor.
Both sides returned to the dressing room at the interval with scores settled at 0-0.
Hazard placed the visitors in the lead 11 minutes after the restart. He drifted along the edge of the penalty box, deceived Alex Bruce with a dummied shot before blasting a low one past McGregor into the bottom left corner.
Fernando Torres ensured an all three points for the Blues whe he swerved past the backpedaling Bruce and shot low inside Allan McGregor’s near post.
