Match report: Huddersfield Town 1-3 Chelsea
Paul Wilson braved the rain and cold at the John Smith’s Stadium for the Guardian and here is the on-the-whistle report he typed with his frozen fingers.
Huddersfield stay mid-table: Defeat for Huddersfield leaves them in 12th place, a highly respectable position but just five points off the drop.
Chelsea stay third ...
Goals from Tiemoue Bakayoko, Willian and Pedro mean that Chelsea stay in third place in the table, 11 points behind Manchester City, having played one game more. Burnley’s late smash-and-grab against Stoke means they’re fourth and here’s the proof.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Man City | 16 | 37 | 46 |
| 2 | Man Utd | 16 | 25 | 35 |
| 3 | Chelsea | 17 | 17 | 35 |
| 4 | Burnley | 17 | 4 | 31 |
| 5 | Liverpool | 16 | 14 | 30 |
Full-time: Huddersfield 1-3 Chelsea
Peep! Peep! Peeeeep! Huddersfield bag themselves a late consolation, but it’s far too little too late on a night they were dominated from start to finish by a Chelsea team that had the game won by half-time. Meanwhile it’s all happening at Selhurst Park, where James McArthur has made it Crystal Palace 2-1 Watford in the knockings of that game.
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GOAL! Huddersfield 1-3 Chelsea (Delpoitre 90)
The substitute scores: Laurent Delpoitre gets above Antonio Rudiger to get on the end of a cross from the left and power a splendid header past Thibaut Courtois.
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90 min: An Ethan Ampadu clearance drops for Danny Williams on the edge of the Chelsea penalty area and he tries his luck. His low drive is fizzing well wide, but takes a deflection off Delpoitre and fizzes mere inches wide of the upright. Meanwhile at Selhurst Park, Crystal Palace have equalised in the last minute to make it 1-1 in their match against Watford.
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89 min: Michy Batshuayi goes close to forcing the ball home from a ridiculously tight angle, but is penalised for a hand-ball in the build-up.
86 min: Laurent Delpoitre goes in with a high boot that looks like it might decapitate Tiemoue Bakayoko, but thinks better of it at the last second and avoids what could have been a nasty challenge and a red card.
83 min: The two teams at the John Smith’s Stadium seem to have reached something of a tacit agreement: Chelsea taking their foot off the gas as long as Huddersfield don’t annoy them by trying too hard to score. We’ve had some good goals and some scintillating link-up play from Eden Hazard, Willian and Pedro ... but otherwise it’s been a game to forget. Hats off to Huddersfield’s supporters, who have been almost relentless in their support for their team tonight.
81 min: Burnley have beaten Stoke City 1-0 at Turf Moor and go fourth in the table in the Premier League in mid-December. Hat’s off to them.
78 min: Chelsea substitution: Andreas Christensen off, dread-headed 17-year-old Welsh international Ethan Ampadu on for his Premier League debut.
76 min: Ashley Barnes has put Burnley 1-0 up against Stoke in the 89th minute of their match. If Burnley hold on for the win, they’ll go fourth in the table for 24 hours at least. At Selhurst Park, Crystal Palace are a goal down against Watford. Daryl Janmaat with the goal there after three minutes. There’s 18 minutes to go in that one.
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75 min: Meanwhile at Turf Moor (potential spoiler alert) ...
74 min: Huddersfield substitution: Laurent Depoitre on for Steve Mounie, who’s put in a shift but seen little or nothing of the ball.
72 min: Huddersfield get forward again, but their final ball lets them down again and what passes for their attack breaks down. They’ve been very, very poor tonight after a decent opening 20 minutes.
70 min: Chelsea substitution: Danny Drinkwater on, N’Golo Kante off and after all his exertions will probably drink water.
68 min: Chelsea substitution: Eden Hazard jogs off after another fine performance and is replaced by Michy Batshuayi.
68 min: Pedro has two chances in quick succession. He blazes the first over the bar from the edge of the Huddersfield penalty area. Moments later, he’s teed up with an exquisite back-heel from Eden Hazard but drags his effort from 14 yards wide.
67 min: Huddersfield substitution: Florent Hadergjonaj on for Chris Lowe, who’s had a torrid time of it trying to keep tabs on Victor Moses.
66 min: It’s been an eventful couple of minutes for Thibaut Courtois, who had so little to do in the first half, that he spent the interval out on the pitch warming up with Chelsea’s goalkeeping coach.
65 min: More signs of life from Huddersfield, as Zanka (Matthias Jorgensen to his mum) tries his luck from distance. His drive from 30 yards fizzes just over Thibaut Courtois’s cross-bar.
62 min: Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois has his first bit of meaningful action, staying on his feet and blocking the ball as Thomas Ince slaloms through the Huddersfield penalty area and tries to lift it over him.
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60 min: Eden Hazard gets past two defenders and brings a smart save out of Lossl with a shot from a very tight angle.
59 min: Pedro and Willian combine with a series of intricate passes to send Victor Moses on his way. The birthday boy shoots from a narrow angle when perhaps he should have squared the ball, but the ball takes a nick off a defender on its way wide and Chelsea have a corner.
3 - Willian has had a hand in three goals in a single Premier League game for the first time ever (1 goal, 2 assists). Magic. pic.twitter.com/aFh3ABrsiw
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) December 12, 2017
58 min: Chelsea continue to dominate, without doing much with the ball. They’ve a three-goal cushion, so sterile possession will suit them just fine.
55 min: Victor Moses is penalised for offside as he tries to chase a pass down the right flank.
52 min: This could get very messy indeed for Huddersfield who are giving Chelsea’s players far too much time on the ball. Once again, Alonso got on the ball on the left touchline and had as long as he needed to whip a cross into the box. With his back to Christopher Schindler, Willian was allowed to win it and tee up Pedro, who rifled the ball into the corner.
GOAL! Huddersfield 0-3 Chelsea (Pedro 50)
Pedro gets on the scoresheet: Alonso gets a cross into the box this time, Willian lays it off for Pedro and the Spaniard whips it into the top right-hand corner.
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49 min: Alonso gets on the ball twice in quick succession on the left touchline, but is unable to get a cross in either time.
48 min: Steve Mounie is cutting a very isolated figure up front for Huddersfield and has barely had a touch of the ball. He hustles and harries various Chelsea defenders in quick succession as they pass the ball out from the back, no doubt knackering himself out in the process.
Second half: Huddersfield Town 0-2 Chelsea
46 min: Huddersfield get the ball rolling for the second half, with 35-year-old central midfielder Dean Whitehead on for Jonathan Hogg. It’s a like for like substitution.
An email from Terry Cooper ...
“I’d just like as a Chelsea fan to send a message to some of our away fans tonight,” he writes. “Please don’t sing ‘Champions of England, you’ll never sing that’ to a team which dominated English football and won several English league titles under Herbert Chapman 90 years ago. That just fuels fire to our rivals which say ‘You’ve got no History’. We’re proud of ours in the late 60s and early 70s, let’s respect our opponents as well please.” That’s them told, Terry.
Half-time: Huddersfield Town 0-2 Chelsea
Chelsea in complete control: Andre Marriner blows for the interval and the players march off for their half-time brew with Chelsea’s totally dominant. Tiemoue Bakayoko and Willian got the goals, which were the only moments of qwuality in a fairly boring 45 minutes of football in which Chelsea enjoyed more than 66% of the possession and had seven shots to Huddersfield’s one.
45 min: Chelsea also make it 3-0 before the break, but Lossl saves well with his left hand from Pedro, who was unmarked in space on the left side of the penalty area when Eden Hazard picked him out.
44 min: Chelsea switch the play from the right flank to the left, where Alonso takes possession on the touchline. He sends in a cross towards the far post, where the unmarked Willian scores with a firm downwards header.
GOAL! Huddersfield 0-2 Chelsea (Willian 43)
Willian heads home to double Chelsea’s lead.
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42 min: A replay suggests that Bakayoko’s goal may actually go down as a Chris Lowe own goal. Bakayoko flicked the ball over Lossl and it looked to be spinning wide of the far post until Lowe bundled it over the line.
41 min: Bakayoko gets in front of Danny Williams and Jonathan Hogg with a high leap and tries to head a Willian free-kick goalwards. Wide.
38 min: Bar Huddersfield’s flirtation with self-destruction, Chelsea have struggled to break down their defence, which is packed tightly in two banks of five and four, leaving little space for Hazard to operate in ... except when lots of Huddersfield players are out of position as their goalkeeper needlessly faffs about with a goal-kick.
36 min: Tommy Smith concedes a free-kick wide on the left for a push on Marcos Alonso and Willian swings the ball into the box. It breaks for N’Golo Kante, who fires high over the bar.
35 min: Chelsea win a corner, which Willian takes ... poorly.
31 min: Chelsea continue to dominate having momentarily silenced a Huddersfield crowd that were incredibly vocal until Bakayoko scored. Prior to the game, David Wagner stressed the need for his team to make no mistakes, but that goal was a disaster of their own making. Lossl played the ball out to his right-back, who played it back to him. With Pedro pressing and his centre-backs out of position, Lossl slipped as he rushed his attempt to hoof it long and the ball travelled no more than 30 yards, straight on to the head of Moses.
28 min: Eden Hazard’s contribution in the build-up to that goal was wonderful: a delightful little headed flick into the path of Willian, who played Bakayoko into the penalty area. Chris Lowe injured himself while trying to keep the ball from crossing the line, but is fit to continue after receiving treatment.
24 min: No sooner do I start praising Huddersfield’s defence than they go and make a mistake that costs them a goal. With his centre-halves split wide apart in front of him, Lossl slips while attempting to play the ball out from the back. It doesn’t travel far, Victor Moses heads it into the gap vacated by Jorgensen and Schindler, where Hazard and Willian move it on to Bakayoko, who is galloping forward from midfield. He dinks it over Lossl and it goes in off Chris Lowe, who was frantically trying to prevent it bouncing over the line and into the bottom right-hand corner. A tidy finish, but dreadful defending from Huddersfield.
GOAL! Huddersfield 0-1 Chelsea (Bakayoko 23)
I may have spoken too soon. Sorry about that, Huddersfield fans.
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22 min: With a quarter of the game gone, Huddersfield can be pleased with their night’s work so far. They’re under the cosh, no doubt, but defending well. Chelsea’s wide men Marcos Alonso and Victor Moses are being given acres of space to get crosses in, but they’re not troubling Huddersfield’s tall defence unduly. Uh-oh ...
21 min: Tom Ince is penalised for a push on Cesar Azpilicueta as the pair gallop down the inside left to contest a ball from deep.
19 min: Mooy plays the ball towards the near post, where Chelsea clear. The ball’s played back in towards Steve Mounie, who was picking himself off the ground after being felled as he contested the initial delivery. He’s offside.
18 min: Aaron Mooy plays a long, inch-perfect pass from deep to Tommy Smith, who’d made a run up the right flank. Huddersfield are rewarded with a corner as the ball goes out of play off Moses.
16 min: The ball’s pinged wide to Moses, who’s having a busy evening skittering up and down the right touchline. He sends in another cross, aiming for Eden Hazard, but the Belgian is flagged for offside again.
14 min: Andreas Christensen is on hand to intercept and clear for Chelsea as Huddersfield attack down the right flank on the break and Kachunga tries to play Tommy Smith in behind with a low pass.
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13 min: Marcos Alonso and Victor Moses are making the pitch big as they hog the touchlines and are afforded plenty of space and time on the ball. Victor Moses sends in a cross from the right, which Lossl clears a mite unconvincingly.
10 min: Aaron Mooy gets on the ball near the halfway line for Huddersfield, prompting a ripple of excitement around the stands of the John Smith’s Stadium. He sends the ball forward and finishes the move he started by volleying a pass inside from Elias Kachunga goalwards from 25-yards. It’s a decent effort, which Azpilicueta blocks.
9 min: Moses and Willian try to combine down the right flank, but Christopher Schindler intervenes and clears the ball down the field with a mighty hoof.
8 min: Nothing in the way of chances so far, but Huddersfield are being pinned back deep inside their own half by a Chelsea side that is dominating possession.
7 min: A goal-kick for Huddersfield, after Victor Moses fails to keep a Pedro pass towards the corner in play.
6 min: Pedro gets the ball in the Huddersfield goal, shooting low past Lossl after running on to a weighted through ball from Willian. It doesn’t count - he was well offside.
5 min: It’s all Chelsea in these opening minutes, with Huddersfield struggling to get the ball out of their own half. Eden Hazard is penalised for offside while trying to run on to a pass from Cesar Azpilicueta.
3 min: Tiemoue Bakayoko plays the ball wide to Victor Moses from midfield, achieving more in three minutes here than he did in 45 before getting hooked at half-time against West Ham on Saturday. Huddersfield clear their lines.
2 min: Huddersfield line up in a 4-5-1 and are already on the back foot, with goalkeeper Jonas Lossl getting a couple of early touches in the form of a clearance with Pedro lurking nearby, followed by a goal kick.
Huddersfield v Chelsea is go ...
1 min: Huddersfield line up in their home kit of blue and white striped shirts, white shorts and white socks. Chelsea’s players wear black shirts, shorts and socks. Chelsea get the ball rolling on a night when full-back Tommy Smith makes his 150th appearance for Huddersfield.
Not long now: The teams are lined up in the tunnel and are led out by Andre Marriner and his team of match officials. Both sets of players go through the last of their pre-match formalities and kick-off is just moments away.
Weather report ...
It’s bucketing down in Huddersfield, where it’s a perishing – When Will I See You Again? – three degrees.
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Changes on both teams
Just the one for Huddersfield: Danny Williams replaces Collin Quaner in midfield. Antonio Conte makes four changes from the side that lost to West Ham on Saturday: Antonio Rudiger, Victor Moses, Pedro and Willian come in. Alvaro Morata and Davide Zappacosta aren’t in the matchday squad, while Cesc Fabregas and Gary Cahill are on the bench.
Huddersfield Town v Chelsea line-ups
Huddersfield: Lossl, Smith, Jorgensen, Schindler, Lowe, Kachunga, Williams, Hogg, Mooy, Ince, Mounie.
Subs: Whitehead, Coleman, Cranie, van La Parra, Depoitre, Quaner, Hadergjonaj.
Chelsea: Courtois, Azpilicueta, Christensen, Rudiger, Moses, Kante, Bakayoko, Alonso, Willian, Pedro, Hazard.
Subs: Caballero, Fabregas, Drinkwater, Musonda, Batshuayi, Cahill, Ampadu.
Referee: Andre Marriner (West Midlands)
Early team news ...
Huddersfield winger Rajiv van La Parra is available for selection having sat out the three-match ban he incurred for his dismissal against Manchester City. Defender Michael Hefele has returned to full training after more than two months out with an achilles injury, but is not yet ready for active duty. Chelsea loanee Kasey Palmer is ineligible.
Palmer is just one of 17 different Chelsea players aged 20 or over out on loan at other clubs, but that minor detail hasn’t stopped the club’s manager Antonio Conte moaning about how many matches his teeny, tiny squad has to contend with again yesterday.
The Italian will engage in a spot of squad rotation this evening. Alvaro Morata misses out due to fatigue and a back problem, while Tiemoue Bakayoko may be dropped following his abysmal showing in defeat against West Ham last weekend. Danny Drinkwater (illness) and David Luiz (knee) both missed that match for different reasons, but are expected to be available for selection again.
Huddersfield v Chelsea - live!
The Kirklees Stadium is the venue for tonight’s Premier League encounter between Huddersfield Town and Chelsea, with the hosts hoping to extend their one-match winning streak and their visitors trying to end a losing one of equal length. The match begins at 8pm (GMT) but stay tuned for team news and build-up as we countdown to kick-off.
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