Fernando Torres' long awaited first goal sealed a 2-0 victory for Chelsea over West Ham United
and ensures the Blues' remain six points behind Manchester United at a rain soaked Stamford Bridge. The result keeps Carlo Ancelotti's side six points off the pace and keeps Avram Grant's side rooted to the foot of the Premier League table.

Both Chelsea and West Ham, managed by former Chelsea boss Avram Grant, fashioned plenty of chances in an open and flowing game but failed to hit the back of the net which leaves them deep in relegation strife.

Both sides had big name players unavailable for the clash with Alex and Ramires out for Chelsea, West Ham were without the services of newly-crowned Football Writer’s Player of the Year, Scott Parker. Chelsea however have the strength in depth to cope better with these injuries.

With the deluge omnipresent throughout the first half, chances were raining down on both goals but neither side could find the accuracy required to open the scoring. Both Florent Malouda and Salomon Kalou both broke the West Ham defences open but in the case of Malouda, when one-on-one with Robert Green, he should have chipped the ball over the advancing ‘keeper instead of trying to place it low.

As was expected much of the action in the first period was played in the Hammers half and stout defending was the order of the day for the team from east London. They were always open to the chance of launching a counter attack and this ploy almost paid dividends when Demba Ba let fly a rasping drive from distance which required Petr Cech to act with urgency.

http://soccerfiester..com/2011/04/torres-ends-his-goal-drought-chelsea-3.html