Chelsea eager to ride League Cup momentum and stretch Premier League lead

Having claimed the English season’s first major trophy, Chelsea will attempt to tighten their stranglehold on the Premier League title race when they visit West Ham United in midweek.

Chelsea beat Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 at Wembley Stadium on Sunday to lift the League Cup, and they had double cause for celebration after Manchester City’s 2-1 defeat at Liverpool earlier in the day.

Chelsea now lead second-place City by five points, with a game in hand, leaving coach Jose Mourinho well placed to repeat the feat from his first season at the club, 10 years ago, when his side followed up success in the League Cup by romping to the title by a 12-point margin.

But Mourinho, who had gone two-and-a-half years without winning a trophy, said it was too early to declare the title race over, and he pointed to the form of Manchester United and a resurgent Liverpool as proof.

“It’s in the hands of everyone,” he said.

“We have lots of difficult matches to play. City have difficult matches. United are third, right? They are in the title race, too. Liverpool, I predicted that.”

United are actually fourth, with Arsenal third.

Chelsea won 3-0 on their visit to Upton Park last season and appear to have little to fear from a West Ham team who have fell to ninth in the table after a run of one win in 10 games.

Bottom club Leicester City are the visitors to the Etihad Stadium, and City could scarcely have asked for more suitable opposition after their loss at Anfield, but with last week’s Uefa Champions League defeat by Barcelona also fresh in the memory, coach Manuel Pellegrini has urged his team to hit back.

“We will see in the reaction in the next game,” he said. “The only way to see is the way we play again on Wednesday.

“I hope that the team will recover and we can win on Wednesday. Every point we drop is more difficult.”

City's defeat at Liverpool, who won courtesy of a sensational late goal by Philippe Coutinho, left the champions at risk of being dragged into the scrap for Uefa Champions League qualification below them.

Arsenal, who beat Everton 2-0 on Sunday, are now only four points behind City in third place, with Manchester United a point further back in fourth and Liverpool another two points back in fifth.

Arsenal visit fourth-bottom Queens Park Rangers tomorrow, while United travel to Newcastle United and Liverpool host third-bottom Burnley.

United laboured to a 2-0 win at home to Sunderland on Saturday that saw record signing Angel Di Maria substituted at half time after a poor display.

Sunderland coach Gus Poyet will have defender Wes Brown available for tonight’s trip to Hull City after his red card he picked up against United was rescinded.

The centre-back, 35, was mistakenly sent off for a foul on Radamel Falcao at the weekend, despite captain John O’Shea being the guilty party. The decision was overturned on appeal by the English Football Association.

Brown’s original one-match ban will not be transferred to O’Shea, meaning both could reform their centre-back partnership against a Hull side also struggling at the wrong end of the table.

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