Christian Pulisic scored a late winner as Chelsea beat 10-man West Ham 1-0 at Stamford Bridge on Sunday afternoon.
The Blues were looking to bounce back from the humiliating 4-2 defeat in midweek against Arsenal but came up against a disciplined West Ham side that was determined to take a positive result.
The match got off to a slow start, with Chelsea controlling much of the possession but failing to trouble Lukasz Fabianski in the Hammers’ goal.
Thomas Tuchel’s side improved in the second half and created far more clear chances as they sought to find the elusive opener.
It was the visitors though who came close to opening the scores when Andriy Yarmolenko beat a defender inside the box and lashed a shot towards the bottom right corner, but Edouard Mendy made a brilliant reflex save to deny him.
With 15 minutes to go, Timo Werner managed to get to a rebound inside the box and shot towards the left post, but his sidefooter was blocked by an alert Fabianski.
The match seemed to be headed for a stalemate with little drama, until Craig Dawson brought down Romelu Lukaku inside the box leading to a penalty.
The defender was sent off after a VAR check, but Jorginho missed the resulting spot-kick as Fabianski made an easy save.
it mattered less though as Pulisic, who was a second-half substitute scored the winner deep in added time.
The victory saw Tuchel’s men avoid the ignominy of suffering four straight home defeats for the first time since September 1978.
They now hold a five-point lead over Arsenal, in fourth, and have a match at hand over the Gunners.
In another match, Burnley recorded three important points as they beat Wolves 1-0.
The victory, courtesy of a Matej Vydra goal, lifted the Clarets from the relegation spots for the first time since October 2021, and could be on their way to safety.
Elsewhere, Brighton and Southampton played out an entertaining 2-2 draw.
