Chelsea 1-0 Norwich: Diego Costa fires Chelsea to an important win

There were chances at both ends on a quarter of an hour as Nathan Redmond found space in the Chelsea box and his powerful effort for stopped by Asmir Begovic before Willian’s shot in a similar fashion was saved by John Ruddy.

Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho has conceded that it is nearly “impossible” for his side to win the Premier League title this season.

Chelsea managed lengthy spells towards Norwich with out placing the sport to mattress after Costa’s sixty fourth-minute strike, which made for a few tense moments late on.

Mourinho said: “You don’t score goals, you get heavier”.

The Brazil-born Spain striker had spurned two good opportunities and been absent when Eden Hazard fashioned two more before pouncing following Cesc Fabregas’ quick free-kick.

There were no further goals so Chelsea secured a 1-0 win which sees them climb above Norwich into 15th spot in the Premier League table.

“So it was important for him”.

“I want the players to feel that I trust them and that I don’t need other players to reach the objectives. But we got the result and are happy about that”.

Since beating Aston Villa 2-0 on October 17, Chelsea had been defeated by West Ham, Liverpool and Stoke City to leave them 16th in the top flight. But we could cope with the last five minutes.

“If we want to finish in the top four we have to win a lot of games now – this is the first one”. If you ask me the title I would say impossible mission.

Ruddy kept out Nemanja Matic as Chelsea claimed the points, with fans chanting Mourinho’s name in a show of support for their under-pressure manager, whose next Premier League test comes at Tottenham in eight days.

Time and again Chelsea’s manager flapped his arms in exasperation and barked and bellowed towards his lone striker, urging him at time to play closer to Hazard. The Blues sit second in their Champions League group with seven points from their opening four games.

“But, in the last week, if every name connected to us was true we’d have to build another training centre because there are already 126 (players linked)”.

“The game at Manchester City was a bit different, we managed to go for it and get a goal”.

Chelsea manager Mourinho admitted his player has been feeling the strain, but believes Costa can now begin to put a hard period behind him.