Ralls gets ball rolling for flying Bluebirds
NEIL WARNOCK’S Cardiff kept in touch with the Championship front-runners after a comfortable victory.
Joe Ralls put the Bluebirds ahead in the eighth minute before a glaring miss from Neal Maupay prevented Brentford levelling just after the half-hour mark.
Cardiff made it 2-0 through Danny Ward as they claimed a win that keeps them four points behind leaders Wolves.
The breakthrough came as Sean Morrison launched a long throw which fell to Ralls who fired into the back of the net with his favoured left foot.
Brentford almost equalised five minutes later when Yoann Barbet played in Maupay but Neil Etheridge reacted well to block his chipped shot.
Barbet fired over before Maupay’s shocking miss kept City in front.
Cardiff skipper Morrison lost out to the striker after a weak pass from Etheridge but, instead of shooting into an open goal, Maupay took his time to dummy before sending the ball wide under pressure from Craig Bryson.
Then in the 36th minute Bruno Ecuele Manga intercepted the ball and charged forward, playing a one-two with Loic Damour before crossing for Ward to prod home.
Warnock said: “I have no sympathy at all for Maupay – he’s tried to be clever and give someone the eye rather than put it in.
“That’s for him to look at and it gave us respite. An equaliser at that stage, and the way they were playing, you think they could start to dominate.
“We had five injuries and two suspensions. It was a really difficult week.
“I’m really proud of the lads because we knew we’d be under the cosh. I think they’re the only club in the league to have had more crosses and shots than us.”
Brentford boss Dean Smith said: “I feel we were unlucky.
“We had enough chances to get something out of the game – we had 25 attempts, 14 inside the penalty area.
“In a normal game you would score two or three of those.
“It felt like it wouldn’t go in for us. Some of our build-up play was very good.”
TONY PULIS was clinging to his job by his fingernails – and that was before they were savaged by the champions.
It will take a miracle for him to survive and at this rate if he does stay on and cannot turn it around quickly then the Baggies are boing, boing down.
Albion owner Guochuan Lai is as hard to read as any Chinese billionaire and did not show his feelings as he had a first-hand view of his side’s capitulation.
But you can only imagine the thoughts swirling around the head of Lai (right) as Eden Hazard, Cesc Fabregas and Alvaro Morata took West Brom apart.
It was an embarrassing humiliation for Pulis and what is even more worrying than the scoreline is the fact that Chelsea did not have to work that hard.
Pulis’ teams have never been easy on the eye but always had a toughness and unwillingness to be a soft touch for anyone. Not any more as this latest mauling means they have gone 11 games without a win.
Hazard got the ball rolling in only the 17th minute, ghosting through a couple of weak challenges and forcing Ben Foster down to his right.
The goalkeeper got a hand to it but could only scoop it into Morata’s feet and the Spaniard made it eight Premier League goals so far.
Six minutes later the roles were reversed as the striker’s slick flick gave the Belgian the chance to evade the onrushing Foster and finish calmly. Then Fabregas’ free-kick sailed over everyone to Marcos Alonso who bundled it over the line at the far post.
A measure of Albion’s awful display – they were booed off at half-time and full-time – came within a minute of the restart with the biggest cheer of the day for interval substitute Claudio Yacob actually winning a tackle!
The Argentinean scrapper has been in the Premier League cold since the opening game of the season – one of only two the Baggies have won – but he was powerless as Hazard made it four in the 62nd minute.
Eagle-eyed Fabregas spotted him as the furthest man forward and picked him out with a floated pass.
Centre-backs Ahmed Hegazi and Gareth McAuley stood off the playmaker who had time to pick his spot.
Albion did give Chelsea the odd problem with high balls and set-pieces but Jay Rodriguez headed tamely straight at Thibaut Courtois from eight yards out.
At least the Baggies looked more up for it after the break without ever troubling Courtois.
But they were still susceptible, Foster getting his