Eden Hazard scored his 100th and 101st Chelsea goals as Maurizio Sarri’s men moved back into the Premier League top four by grinding out a 2-1 win at Watford on Boxing Day.
Two of the three goals came in first-half stoppage time as the Belgian’s opener was quickly cancelled out by Roberto Pereyra’s spectacular strike.
However, Hazard made sure he was the match-winner as he was brought down by Ben Foster and then converted the resulting spot-kick early in the second half to move Chelsea two points ahead of Arsenal in the battle for Champions League qualification.
Despite fuming at Chelsea’s lack of focus in losing at Stamford Bridge for the first time in charge of the Blues to Leicester on Saturday, Sarri named the same starting line-up with Hazard again serving as the focal point of the attack ahead of Olivier Giroud and Alvaro Morata.
Cool headed
Hazard had to wait for his chances to come, but showed why Sarri persists with him through the middle as he coolly rounded Foster to give Chelsea the lead.
Until that point Willian had the visitors’ only clear chance when he also rounded the ‘keeper but could only strike the post from a narrow angle.
And Watford will believe it was well worthy of its equaliser just a minute after falling behind.
Jose Holebas’s corner perfectly picked out Pereyra on the edge of the Chelsea box and the Argentine connected sweetly on the volley to find the bottom corner.
The hosts had claims for a penalty waved away when Gerard Deulofeu tumbled under a shoulder barge from David Luiz, but there was no controversy when at the other end moments later Hazard was hauled down by Foster.
Hazard picked himself up to dispatch the penalty confidently and by the end Chelsea’s margin of victory should have been greater.
Willian and N’Golo Kante drilled low shots inches wide and Foster had to race back to his goal after going forward for a late Watford corner to deny Hazard his hat-trick with the last action of the game.
Request denied
Napoli coach Carlo Ancelotti said the club asked for Wednesday’s Serie A game against Inter Milan to be stopped a number of times following racist chants towards Senegalese defender Kalidou Koulibaly.
Koulibaly was sent off 10 minutes from the end of Napoli’s 1-0 defeat at the San Siro, with substitute Lautaro Martinez scoring a stoppage-time winner for Inter.
Centre-back Koulibaly was initially booked for a foul on Matteo Politano and then shown another yellow card in the aftermath for sarcastically applauding the referee.
The 27-year-old had been subjected to monkey noises from home supporters throughout the match.
Ancelotti’s gripe
“We asked three times for the match to be suspended and there were three announcements, but the match continued,” Ancelotti told Sky.
“The player was irritable, he wasn’t in the best state of mind. Usually he’s a very calm and professional player but there were these noises throughout the game.
“It looks like an excuse but the player was agitated and irritable. It’s not good, not for us, nor for Italian football,” he added.
“The solution exists. You have to stop the match. You just have to know when, after how many announcements. And if we don’t know, then next time we may have to stop play ourselves.”
The results:
Premier League: Watford 1 (Pereyra 45+2) lost to Chelsea 2 (Hazard 45+1, 58-pen).
Serie A: Roma 3 (Perotti 8-pen, Schick 23, Zaniolo 59) bt Sassuolo 1 (Babacar 90); SPAL 0 drew with Udinese 0; Torino 3 (Nkoulou 44, De Silvestri 49, Iago Falque 75) bt Empoli 0; Inter Milan 1 (Martinez 90+1) bt Napoli 0.