By Dan Levene
Norwich City 1-3 Chelsea
Two late goals from Jose Mourinho subs turned around a game that looked to be slipping form Chelsea – and gave Blues their first three points on the road.
Strikes from Eden Hazard and Willian, just 90 seconds apart, sealed a win that had, just minutes earlier, looked improbable at best.
Mourinho, without the suspended Fernando Torres, caused surprise in many quarters by selecting Demba Ba up-front ahead of Samuel Eto'o.
Chelsea had a dream start and it only took until the fourth minute for them to find the back of the net.
Ba, paying dividends to his manager for picking him, received the ball and turned on a sixpence on the edge of the box.
He laid off to Oscar – racing in – who finished with a sublime volley that looked oh-so-easy.
Ba could have added his own name to the score sheet less than five minutes later, collecting a Juan Mata pass on the left of the box, his angled shot forced a fine save from John Ruddy.
Ba was again in the mix on the half hour, leaping for a high ball on Ruddy's right post. The keeper parried, and it fell like a peach for the Chelsea man, who turned to tap it in.
But Ruddy, blinded by the sun, seemed to inadvertently pull him down. Referee Neil Swarbrick gave a corner.
The second half started very untidily for both sides. Canaries had a couple of penalty appeals refused – neither particularly compelling.
But Blues looked lost – completely different from the first period. Norwich came forward, and the equaliser was of little surprise when it came.
A cross from the Blues' right led the defence a merry dance. Ricky van Wolfswinkel headed on at the far post, and Anthony Pilkinton put it past Petr Cech.
The long-awaited changes from the Chelsea dugout came shortly after. Samuel Eto'o came on for Ba, who had considerably diminished on his outstanding first-half performance; and Hazard on for Ashley Cole, who departed clutching his ribs.
Neither made much immediate impact, and Mourinho again rolled the dice, bringing on Willian for a fading Mata.
But it was a Norwich sub who came closest to making an immediate impact when Nathan Redmond's shot was parried by Petr Cech.
With the minutes running out, it was vital that Mourinho's subs bedded in. And so they did.
With 85 minutes on the clock, Hazard began a break from a Norwich corner, which was carried out wide courtesy of Oscar, and then snuck in at the other end – underneath Ruddy – by the Belgian sub himself.
A minute later it was another sub and another goal, the break coming much the same way, again carried by Oscar, and this time rifled in by Willian with a great finish.
From so very nearly losing this, Chelsea had dug out the character to get what on paper looked like a comfortable win.
This was just what Chelsea had been lacking on the road up until now. Could Mourinho's old Chelsea spirit be back?
