Chelsea have gained a four-point lead over the fourth-placed Leicester City (59) and fifth-placed Manchester United (59).
Chelsea's French striker Olivier Giroud (CR) celebrates with teammates after he scores his team's first goal uring the English Premier League football match between Chelsea and Norwich City at Stamford Bridge in London on July 14, 2020. (Photo by Richard Heathcote / POOL / AFP)
Thanks to a moment of brilliance from Christian Pulisic and a perfect header from Olivier Giroud, Chelsea somehow managed to beat an already-relegated Norwich side 1-0 in Premier League on Tuesday and add to the misery of Leicester City and Manchester United.
The result at the empty Stamford Bridge helped the Blues strengthen their hold of the third spot in the points table after it had looked vulnerable following their humiliating 0-3 defeat at the hands of Sheffield United in last league match.
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But with Leicester City losing and Manchester United dropping points in the same round, Chelsea had received a fresh opportunity to reclaim their authority at third. With 63 points, they now lead fourth-placed Leicester and fifth-placed United by four points.
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Also, it was Chelsea’s fourth clean sheet in their past five home games and they next face United in the semi-final of FA Cup.
Chelsea head-coach Frank Lampard was visibly frustrated with his side’s performance against Sheffield and, thus, he introduced five changes to the starting line up against Norwich.
However, the changes did not seem to inject any inspiration as Lampard’s Londoners struggled through out the match to wreak havoc in Norwich’s box, except for the only goal of the match.
After squandering a few half chances where both Giroud and Pulisic had brought Norwich keeper Tim Krul into play, the Chelsea attack took one desperate move in the third minute of the opening half’s stoppage time.
A heavily-marked Pulisic received a ball from Marcus Alonso at a few yards away on the left side of the box. With an impeccable inswinging cross then the 22-year-old American found Giroud who made no mistake before sending the ball into the back of the net to score his fourth goal since the restart of English top-flight.
The second half repeated a similar kind of display with the visitors defending deep and Chelsea owning a lion’s share of ball possession, but with lesser attempt at scoring goals.
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