BLUES BOUNCE
Conte rings changes and gets the desired outcome
THROUGH the wind and the rain, Chelsea turned what threatened to be a difficult night into something of a procession.
Three up inside 50 minutes without a recognised centreforward, they put Saturday’s upset at home to West Ham behind them with some ease.
It is unlikely to be enough to revive a flagging title challenge. Nor was it the kind of performance to strike fear into their Champions League opponents Barcelona.
But this is just what Antonio Conte needed after another difficult weekend.
Tiemoue Bakayoko responded to criticism of his performances since moving to Stamford Bridge for £40million in the summer by scoring the first, Willian headed the second, and Pedro claimed the third, with Eden Hazard causing more than his fair share of problems.
One bonus for Conte was that swirling rain and not snow greeted his players as they emerged from the tunnel in their grey kit on a truly grey night in West Yorkshire. The Chelsea boss (left) joined home boss David Wagner in wearing a baseball cap to keep out the elements, but he would have been pleased by what he saw in the first half as Chelsea surged into a deserved two-goal lead. They started brightly enough in difficult conditions that worsened as the half wore on and contributed to the first goal in the 23rd minute.
Huddersfield goalkeeper Jonas Lossl slipped as he cleared the ball downfield and Moses headed his wayward pass back to Hazard. The Belgian flicked the ball to Willian and he laid it into the path of Bakayoko, who had set off down the left channel.
The Frenchman accelerated away from Mathias Zanka into the box and knew exactly what to do as Lossl raced off his line to try to block him.
A lovely, clipped finish beat the keeper and was already going in as Chris Lowe attempted an acrobatic clearance as he raced back towards his own goal, but succeeded only in touching the ball over the line with his right thigh and falling face-first into the net.
Bakayoko could easily have had another in the 40th minute when he rose above Danny Williams to meet Willian’s free-kick from the right but sent a header spinning narrowly the wrong side of the post.
Chelsea did not have to wait long for a second. Three minutes later, Cesar Azpilicueta switched play with a long pass out to the left, and Marcos Alonso took one touch before swinging a cross to the edge of the six-yard box.
Lowe had tracked back but got under the ball and Willian was unmarked to beat Lossl with a downward header.
The nearest the home side came to testing Thibaut Courtois was Aaron Mooy’s volley from an Elias Kachunga cross which Azpilicueta did well to block.
Pedro went close to a third before the interval when Lowe’s stray pass was intercepted but Lossl came out and spread his body to make the block.
The Spaniard wasn’t to be denied, however, and struck five minutes after the restart. Again, the cross came from Alonso, and this time Willian caused problems by tangling with Christian Schindler. The ball ran loose to Pedro who steered it home from 15 yards. Game over.
Laurent Depoitre pulled a goal back with the last action of the game, beating Courtois with a fantastic header from Florent Hadergjonaj’s cross, but it mattered little.
Man of the match Willian insisted Chelsea had not given up on the title. ‘We are fighting till the end,’ he said. ‘We are Chelsea, we are a big club. We did pretty well today. We had a great game.’