Christian Pulisic’s late goal ensured Chelseastrengthened their grip on third place in the Premier League with a 1-0 win against West Ham.

The American’s winning goal spared the blushes of Jorginho who had missed a penalty a few moments earlier when Lukasz Fabianskiheld onto his extremely weak attempt. Following a colossal performance in the heart of the Hammers defence, Craig Dawson was sent off for his part in giving away the penalty as he pulled down Romelu Lukaku who was through on goal.

Pulisic was then able to make the telling difference after being introduced from the bench as he swept Marcos Alonso’s low cross into the bottom corner. It was a crushing blow for the visitors who, despite making wholesale changes, put up a great fight and defending resolutely throughout.

David Moyes clearly had both eyes on his side’s Europa League semi-final first leg against Frankfurt on Thursday by making six changes to his starting XI but he will still be bitterly disappointed to have lost in such a manner. Meanwhile, Thomas Tuchel won’t have been particularly impressed by his team’s performance but will be happy that they were able to take all three points.

The result restores Chelsea’s five-point cushion to fourth-placed Arsenal while it leaves West Ham seventh, putting a major dent in their ambitions of finishing in a European qualification place.

While we await some kind of reaction to the match from David Moyes, here is some more of what his counterpart had to say after the game.

“It feels like a big step up after the recent results and after the loss against our direct competitor, sadly against Arsenal. It was necessary and the atmosphere is like this in the dressing room,” said Tuchel.

“We also deserved a bit of luck after the last results and how they were created here in our stadium. We’re very strong in away games, we’ve got a big one coming now in Manchester at Old Trafford. This good feeling at the end after a late win lifts everybody’s mood and it’s a big help, we deserved that.”