John Terry and Diego Costa fire brilliant Blues to derby win

Going into Christmas in fourth place, only a point behind Manchester United, and pretty pleased with themselves, West Ham must have felt like visitors to the rich neighbours, suddenly realising their presents are not quite so classy after all.

An Andy Carroll and a Stewart Downing, however nicely wrapped, are not a Diego Costa or an Eden Hazard.

The latter pair were among a crop of outstanding performers in blue as Chelsea consolidated their position at the top of the table, compared with whom the east Londoners could offer only their goalkeeper Adrian.Surely one of the most improved keepers in the country, he followed three tremendous saves against Leicester last Saturday with four more here. Chelsea, of course, have rather more to offer than the Premier League's bottom club and not even the former Betis man could prevent John Terry's tap-in in the first half or Costa's individual flourish in the second.

Far from the 19th-century football of which Chelsea's manager, Jose Mourinho, had accused West Ham following the goalless draw here last January, their approach was all too 21st century: faced with another game 48 hours after this one, they left their two most effective players this season shivering in the dugout for an hour. Alex Song and Diafra Sakho duly appeared at that point, whereupon Chelsea immediately scored their second goal, reducing Sam Allardyce's plan to rubble.

He refused to blame defeat on team selection, pointing out the qualities of their replacements, Mark Noble and Enner Valencia, but admitting that had there been seven days until the next game the line-up would have been different.

"I have no complaints about the result," Allardyce said. "Chelsea are a top-quality side and we found it difficult to compete with them. I'm angry with the first half, the way we approached the game. I expected us not to play that way.

I had to set out the tactics against a side of the quality of Chelsea. When it doesn't happen, you get frustrated."

here was an improvement in the second half, which was only to be expected, but even then the only time Chelsea were threatened with conceding a fourth home goal of the season was just before the finish when the third substitute, Morgan Amalfitano, hit a post from close in.Mourinho hinted that he would make changes of his own with three matches over the next eight days, but knows he has far better resources than West Ham and just about everyone else.