Chelsea 5-0 West Ham

CHELSEA KEPT UP their electric goalscoring form at home and boosted their hopes of European football with a 5-0 thrashing of West Ham.

Mauricio Pochettino’s side have now scored 22 times in their last six Premier League games at Stamford Bridge, and here there was a fluency to their attacking play that could well have yielded substantially more than the five they put past the hapless visitors.

Chelsea were three up at the break. First, Cole Palmer netted the 21st league goal of his debut season in west London, steering a loose ball into the corner, then Conor Gallagher volleyed home.

Noni Madueke headed the third near the end of an excellent first half, before Nicolas Jackson took his tally for the season to 13 in the league with a brace after the interval.

Chelsea climbed to seventh after recording back-to-back league wins for the first time since January, and there is increasingly the feeling that, after a difficult start, the players are responding to their head coach’s methods.

For David Moyes’ Hammers, this was a calamitous display. Eliminated from Europe and now all but out of the race to qualify again next year, it was hard to avoid a sense of a promising season petering out as the Chelsea goals flew past Alphonse Areola and their players came to look more and more dejected.

Their punishment began after 15 minutes. Madueke crossed from the right towards Jackson, the ball deflected back out off Kurt Zouma and ran loose towards Palmer, who opened up his left foot and guided a finish into the corner.

The second goal arrived after half an hour. Palmer cut a clever pass down the middle to the feet of Madueke, who attempted to flick it up and over Zouma. The West Ham defender succeeded only in looping the ball upwards to where Gallagher was waiting, and the captain crashed the ball into the corner with a coolly taken volley.

Chelsea by now were dominant. Madueke almost made it three when he danced in off the right beyond three defenders and hit a shot that deflected wide.

He would not have long to wait for his goal, though, as from the resulting corner Thiago Silva leapt to send a firm header back across the box, and Madueke reacted quickly to steer his header into the corner.

West Ham’s respite lasted barely longer than the interval, and within two minutes of the restart they conceded again. Trevoh Chalobah lumped a ball up from the back and the visitors’ defence seemed to dissolve. Into the space glided Madueke, unselfishly squaring it for Jackson to make it four.

A lengthy VAR check for offside then confirmed a second for Jackson and a fifth for Chelsea, the finish tucked inside Areola’s near post to round off West Ham’s humiliation.

Brighton & Hove Albion 1-0 Aston Villa

ASTON VILLA’S QUEST for Champions League qualification suffered a setback after Joao Pedro ended Brighton’s six-match Premier League winless run with a dramatic 87th-minute winner.

Unai Emery’s side travelled to the Amex Stadium knowing victory combined with a Tottenham loss to Liverpool later in the day would guarantee a fourth-placed finish.

But Villa, who are juggling their top-flight commitments with a run to the semi-finals of the Europa Conference League, laboured for large parts of a tight south-coast encounter and were beaten 1-0 after Pedro headed home the rebound when his late penalty was saved by Robin Olsen.

Second-choice keeper Olsen produced a series of fine stops to prevent the Seagulls taking an earlier lead, while Pascal Gross had a second-half finish ruled out for offside following a lengthy VAR review.

With 19-goal top scorer Ollie Watkins a peripheral figure, the visitors barely threatened, albeit captain John McGinn also had a goal chalked off.

After a scoreless, and largely forgettable first half, Germany midfielder Gross turned home Igor Julio’s left-wing cross in the 68th minute but the finish was disallowed for a marginal offside.

Villa endured similar disappointment 11 minutes from time when John McGinn was denied by the flag after Leon Bailey blocked Simon Adingra’s attempted clearance following Lucas Digne’s corner.

Brighton were then given a golden chance to earn an overdue success when Adingra went down under a challenge from Ezri Konsa.

Although Pedro’s initial effort was easily kept out by the impressive Olsen, the ball looped up kindly for the Brazil forward to nod in, much to the relief of most inside the stadium.

Villa had nine minutes of added time to salvage a point but never looked like doing so as their top-four hopes were dealt a blow.