Happy Blue year

West Ham 1 Chelsea 3

Chelsea are still winning, Frank Lampard is still scoring - and Jose Mourinho is still moaning despite a comfortable victory over West Ham.

There was never any likelihood of Chelsea beginning January with a defeat, and the only thing that remained was for Mourinho to provide reporters with his usual post-match entertainment.

He did it by drawing attention to a Nigel Reo-Coker tackle that injured Michael Essien so badly after eight minutes the Ghana international will need x-rays today on what could be a broken ankle.

He said: “I don’t want to speak about Reo-Coker and the tackle. But I can imagine if it was the opposite way around it would be different. I can imagine what would happen if, for instance, a Chelsea player did what Steven Gerrard did against Newcastle recently. Essien was on tv for 15 days when he made a tackle on Hammann, Gerrard I saw twice. Nobody speaks about it, nobody asks for a ban.

“Essien is suspended for the Champions League and he cannot tackle any more because it is immediately a yellow card. Today there was a foul on him, he’s out and he can’t walk but no doubt it will not be a big deal.”

Despite Mourinho’s huffing and puffing, there is no ignoring his team after another hugely impressive display.

It didn’t take an expert, either, to predict that Lampard would silence the boo-boys and open the scoring.

When he pulled back his right foot to end a goalmouth melee with a flashing volley from 12 yards on 25 minutes it must have felt like sweet revenge. “The reception for me wasn’t great but I expected that,” said Lampard

“I would like to come back and get a bit of respect but not many give me that here so I have to keep on working for Chelsea and the result was very, very pleasing.”

Roy Carroll made two fine saves from a rampaging Arjen Robben in the first half and Matthew Etherington had an effort cleared off the line by John Terry at the other end.

Geremi managed to get away with a push in the face and then an elbow on Yossi Benayoun, to the fury of the home crowd, and Ricardo Carvalho, lying on the ground, was extremely lucky to get away with hauling down the same player as he sped past him.

All the ferocity of the occasion could not hide the fact that Chelsea were head and shoulders above their opponents, but astonishingly West Ham equalised 22 seconds into the second-half. Marlon Harewood swapped passes with Reo-Coker before stabbing the ball past Cech and then forcing the ball over the line.

Unfortunately for West Ham, that stung Chelsea into action.

Mourinho brought on Crespo on 60 minutes and within seconds the Argentine, who picked up a hamstring injury before the end, latched onto a Robben through-ball to beat Carroll.

Eidur Gudjohnsen then produced a wonderful 40-yard through ball on the half volley to send Drogba away, and his angled, instant finish across the keeper was ruthless in the extreme.

So, although the bells have tolled to welcome in 2006, don’t expect Chelsea to be making any major changes this year.

“What are my New Year’s resolutions? Only to win the next game,” said Mourinho. “We have an incredible record in 2005 with a lot of victories and a lot of points and I just want to carry on winning matches. To win the Premiership is the biggest target for 2006.”

WEST HAM: Carroll, Dailly, Ferdinand, Collins, Konchesky, Benayoun, Fletcher, Reo-Coker, Mullins (Zamora 71), Etherington (Bellion 78), Harewood.

CHELSEA: Cech, Geremi, Ricardo Carvalho, Terry, Del Horno, Duff (Crespo 60), Essien (Gudjohnsen 13), Lampard, Makelele, Robben, Drogba, Crespo (Wright-Phillips 83).

Referee: H Webb (S Yorkshire).