London: Chelsea kept up its title charge in the Premier League by easily beating 10-man West Bromwich Albion 2-0 on Saturday, with Diego Costa scoring his league-leading 11th goal of the season.
Costa downed a cross from Oscar to volley in the opening goal in the 11th minute at Stamford Bridge and Eden Hazard doubled the lead in the 25th after a corner from Cesc Fabregas.
Any hopes of a West Brom comeback were ended when Claudio Yacob was given a straight red card for a challenge on Costa in the 29th. Chelsea was never threatened after that and easily could have added a third goal with better finishing.
Chelsea provisionally extended its lead over second-place Southampton to seven points, and stayed eight ahead of defending champion Manchester City.
It was Chelsea's sixth straight league win at Stamford Bridge, and the result saw the Blues start a top-flight campaign unbeaten in 12 games for the first time.
It was one-way traffic from the outset and Mourinho's side would have taken the lead inside five minutes was it not for Foster impressively preventing John Terry from turning home a low Hazard cross.
The league leaders would not have to wait long to make the breakthrough, though. Neat team play saw Oscar float the ball to unmarked Costa, who impressively controlled with his chest and struck a right-footed volley past Ben Foster.
The second goal looked inevitable and came after Oscar played an intelligent short corner to Hazard, with the Belgian jinking free before unleashing a fizzing strike that snuck past Foster via a slight deflection off Craig Gardner.
Costa, shortly after being caught by Craig Dawson, was replaced by Didier Drogba for the closing stages, yet even his introduction, along with that of Loic Remy and Ramires, was unable to help Chelsea grab what have been a deserved third.
