Christian Pulisic scored a late goal to lead Chelsea to a 1-0 win over 10-man West Ham at Stamford Bridge on Sunday afternoon.
The Blues were looking to recover from their humiliating 4-2 midweek defeat against West Ham, but faced a disciplined West Ham side who were bent on a positive result.
The match got off to a slow start, with Chelsea controlling much of the possession but failing to upset Lukasz Fabianski in the Hammers’ net.
Thomas Tuchel’s side improved in the second half and created clearer chances as they sought to find the elusive opening goal.
It was the guests who came close to opening the scoring when Andrei Yarmolenko beat a defender inside the penalty area and fired a shot into the lower right corner, but Edward Mendy made a superb reaction to stop him.
15 minutes before the end of the match, Timo Werner managed to get a rebound inside the penalty area and hit the left post, but his side player was obstructed by Fabiansky’s alert.
The match seemed to be headed into a stalemate with little drama, until Craig Dawson knocked out Bromelo Lukaku inside the penalty area resulting in a penalty.
The defender was sent off after a VAR check, but Jorginho missed the resulting penalty as Fabianski saved for an article.
It was less important because Pulisic, who was a second-half substitute, scored the winning goal in overtime.
The victory at Stamford Bridge spared Tuchel’s men the disgrace of having suffered four consecutive home defeats for the first time since September 1978.
They are now five points ahead of Arsenal, in fourth place, and they have a game in hand for Arsenal.
In another match, Burnley scored three important points to beat Wolverhampton 1-0.
The win thanks to a goal by Mate Vedra lift Claret out of the relegation zones for the first time since October 2021, and they may be on their way to safety.
Elsewhere, Brighton and Southampton tied 2-2.
