Le Saux rewards Chelsea's labours

Chelsea 2 West Bromwich Albion

In the sort of fixture that has rarely brought out the best in them, Chelsea did just enough in the end, without impressing in more than the briefest of spells. They would still have been denied, in familiar fashion, if two good efforts in West Bromwich's one positive period had not struck the bar and post, but by the whistle, Claudio Ranieri's great-unpredictables side had climbed into the top three of the Premiership, and Albion were in the bottom three for the first time since August.

"Always in England, the result is open until the last whistle," Ranieri said. He is right in a sense, but the feeling yesterday was that once those few opportunities had escaped, the visitors would be having a blank day. Their manager, Gary Megson, was realistic enough to admit: "We can't keep saying we're learning lessons; some of the lessons have got to stick. If we'd got something out of that, Chelsea would have been kicking themselves. We give possession away too easily and are making individual errors."

But for an equaliser in the last minute at home to Birmingham last week, it would now be five defeats in a row in an inaugural Premiership season that has been running in cycles: three defeats, by Manchester United, Leeds and Arsenal, in which they nevertheless showed some promise, duly delivered in three successive victories, all by their trademark 1-0 scoreline. Then came a return to earth, and further defeats by Liverpool, Blackburn and Newcastle before the local- derby draw.

Megson's reaction was to give Jason Roberts a new partner in attack, replacing the prodigal son, Lee Hughes – who has unexpectedly struggled without a goal since his return from Coventry City – with the young Scottish international Scott Dobie. Neither Dobie nor Roberts were at their best yesterday and the pressure was accordingly always on a beefy back three, who lack the pace and finesse to cope with the likes of Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Gianfranco Zola.

Chelsea initially countered their opponents' 3-5-2 with a standard 4-4-2, bringing Jesper Gronkjaer back on the right flank at the expense of Jody Morris and moving Enrique de Lucas to the left. That did not last long, Ranieri deciding to change things after an unconvincing start by pushing Graeme Le Saux forward from the left-back position and switching De Lucas into the centre.

The manager had insisted on "patience and calm", to improve on a record of only one home win in the Premiership. His team built up patiently enough, without finding the final pass or cutting edge for almost half an hour, at which stage the home supporters were beginning to lack both patience and calm.

Zola, who has been in such inspiring form and has eight goals to his name, finally came up with the sort of incisive pass required in the 28th minute, putting Hasselbaink in to drag the ball wide of the goalkeeper, Russell Hoult, but also of the post. Within 60 seconds, however, Zola's pass was touched on first time by Emmanuel Petit to give Hasselbaink a better angle, and this time the the big striker beat Hoult – just – off the goalkeeper's foot and then a post.

Albion had encouraged their large body of support with a couple of promising breaks, the best of which ended with Marcel Desailly beating Dobie to a low cross by Neil Clement, the former Chelsea full-back having an excellent game.

Gronkjaer was infuriating as usual, getting possession in good positions then wasting it. Soon after the break he found Frank Lampard, whose miscued effort was hacked away by Sean Gregan. Similarly stout defending failed to rescue Albion in the 54th minute and they went two goals down; Hasselbaink, slowly looking more like his old self after a sluggish start to the season, wriggled through to hit a fierce shot that Phil Gilchrist could only block. Le Saux tapped in for his first Premiership goal since December.

At last a dull game had opened up, and Albion deserved to cut their deficit back three times in as many minutes, twice hitting the frame of the goal and once being denied by the Blues' Italian goalkeeper, Carlo Cudicini. Clement was heavily involved, crossing for Andy Johnson to head against the foot of a post and then thumping a 30-yard drive against the crossbar. Next, the wing-back Igor Balis, hitherto ineffective, delivered a low cross from the right and Hughes, on as a substitute, brought a superb save from Cudicini.

It was a significant reflection of the way the wind was blowing that Ranieri sent on an extra defender, John Terry, to play at left-back for the final 10 minutes, taking off Gronkjaer. But Hughes's weak finish, shooting straight at Cudicini, summed up Albion's day and left them contemplating a winter as long and hard as they have always feared.

Chelsea 2 West Bromwich Albion 0
Hasselbaink 30, Le Saux 55

Half-time: 1-0 Attendance: 40,893