- Mourinho title hopes still alive with Demba Ba
- Chelsea's goal hero again after 10-man Swansea make Blues sweat in South Wales
Demba Ba scored the only goal of the game as Chelsea were made to sweat against the 10 men of Swansea City. The three points keeps Jose Mourinho's team two points behind Barclays Premier League leaders Liverpool, who they play at Anfield on April 27.
Straight down the tunnel and not a word for the press. A win is a win, but a victory like this will do nothing to convince Jose Mourinho that he commands anything other than a battering ram with a blunt nose. He’s said it all before so perhaps there was no point in repeating himself.
True, it is a win that puts Chelsea close to where they want to be. Had he stopped for a chat, he might have even admitted they now have a chance of winning the title.
But this was a laboured win against a side playing with 10 men for 75 minutes, a performance of wasted chances and not many deep breaths. They cantered and strolled, comfortable and occasionally attractive, but not exactly busting a gut and certainly not clinical.
Here, they managed 26 shots and, astonishingly, hit the target with only three of them. A season in miniature? They might have won by five or six, but instead they were perhaps lucky to win by one, Demba Ba’s winning strike taking a deflection before it was helped by some poor goalkeeping.
