Chelsea 3-1 Man United: Eto’o hat-trick heaps further misery on Moyes
Samuel Eto’o scored a hat-trick as Chelsea heaped further misery on Manchester United and their beleaguered boss David Moyes with a comfortable victory at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.
The Cameroon striker made the breakthrough on 17 minutes with a deflected effort from outside the box before capitalising on some woeful defending to add a second from close-range on the stroke of half-time.
Eto'o, 32, completed his treble four minutes into the second half to become the first Chelsea player to score a hat-trick against United since 1954.
Javier Hernandez reduced the arrears 13 minutes from time but it was too, little, too late for United, who had Nemanja Vidic sent off in injury time.
The result stretches Chelsea’s unbeaten home run under Jose Mourinho to a remarkable 71 games and keeps the Blues third in the Premier League, two points behind leaders Arsenal.
For United, it all but ends their faint title hopes and ramps up the pressure on Moyes, whose side remain seventh and a mammoth 14 points off the top.
With both Robin van Persie and Wayne Rooney missing out for the champions through injury, it was always going to be a tough ask getting any type of positive result against a Chelsea side brimming with confidence after five straight wins.
United did, however, start the brighter of the two sides and had the game’s earliest chance, when Ashley Young found space inside the box with less than two minutes on the clock but saw his tame shot thwarted by Petr Cech.
The visitors were made to pay for that miss when Eto'o, preferred to Fernando Torres in attack, hit a long-range strike that deflected off Michael Carrick and over a helpless David de Gea.
Adnan Januzaj and Danny Welbeck both had chances to equalise before a criminally unmarked Eto’o pounced again just before half-time, prodding in Gary Cahill's cross from a few yards out.
Eto’o and Cahill combined again minutes after the re-start to make it 3-0, with the Cameroonian on hand to knock the ball home from close-range after the England defender had seen his header parried by De Gea.
Substitute Hernandez turned home Phil Jones’ cross late on but that proved to be a mere consolation for United.
A miserable afternoon was compounded for Moyes and United when captain Vidic was shown a straight red card for a reckless challenge on Eden Hazard in stoppage time.
United's title hopes are almost certainly over and they now face a battle just to achieve Champions League qualification, with six points separating them from a top-four place.