Taciturn is as taciturn does. After his diatribe against the media last Friday, Avram Grant was anything but exuberant about his team’s crushing victory over West Ham at Upton Park. He would give no explanation about his decision to leave Didier Drogba on the bench throughout, reasoning that he would not speak about players who had not been on the pitch.

In Drogba’s absence, Nicolas Anelka was the solitary striker and performed in stark contrast with his unhappy afternoon in the Carling Cup final when Grant inexplicably put him out on the left wing.

Chelsea’s win was the more remarkable because for most of the game they were reduced to 10 men after the sending off of Frank Lampard on 34 minutes. Challenged by Luis Boa Morte, he responded with a push. The referee, Peter Walton, had a short discussion with his lines-man, then rather surprisingly showed Lampard the red card.

Neither manager seemed convinced. West Ham’s Alan Curbishley said: “As they both got up, I think Frank pushed him. Sometimes you look at that and hope common sense might prevail, but the referee looked at it and decided to send him off. A soft one, I think.”

Grant’s view was that the decision was given from some 20 yards away. “I didn’t see it,” he said, but understood the offence was “a slap in the face of Boa Morte. If so, then it’s a red card - if the assistant referee is right.”

Before his departure, Lampard had made a significant contribution to his team’s success. After 17 minutes, following Anton Ferdinand’s rash foul on Salomon Kalou, Lampard calmly put away the penalty. On 22 minutes, it was his cross from the left that gave Michael Ballack, completely unmarked, the chance to crash home a right-footed goal and Chelsea’s third.

The previous week, West Ham fans were induced to criticise their team for being too defensive at Fulham. Here against Chelsea, West Ham were scarcely defensive at all. Their marking and tackling were simply abysmal. “You could argue,” admitted Curbishley, “that we should have got people closer to them.” Indeed you could.

West Ham’s back four was disastrously porous, and they were hardly helped by their midfield. Chelsea could have gone ahead in the second minute when a Lampard free kick was met by the head of John Terry, pushed away by Robert Green, then knocked into the net by Anelka, who was given offside.

Three minutes after the penalty, Chelsea doubled their lead, exploiting a West Ham defence that was distracted to a degree. Anelka, out on the left, where he is perfectly happy to wander when stationed in the middle, sent across a ball that Joe Cole swept past Green.

Cole also played a crucial role in Chelsea’s fourth goal against a team that could not press home its numerical advantage. After 64 minutes, Kalou neatly set up Joe Cole. His shot was beaten out by Green, only for it to come to Ash-ley Cole, who steered his shot into the far corner of the goal. With the exception of Terry’s clearance off the line, West Ham’s 11 scarcely threatened Chelsea’s 10.

Curbishley seemed to be whistling in the dark when he asserted: “I thought the first half was quite even in terms of possession . . . when you’re playing against the top three or four sides and you go down quickly, it’s a long way to come back.” The ineptitude and fallibility of the West Ham defence, coupled with Chelsea’s direct, quick, intelligent football made it inevitable that goals would be scored. “The game got away from us in five minutes,” said Curbishley. “I don’t think Joe Cole will hit [another] one like that with his left foot.”

Asked whether he thought Chelsea still had a chance of the title, Grant responded: “I think that we’re in the title race all the time. We used our chances in the first half, and then we had some more in the second half playing with one man short, but we played very clever, and they didn’t create one chance.” Grant had somehow forgotten Terry’s glorious overhead clearance off the line from Carlton Cole.

It was surprising to see West Ham take Carlton Cole off the field after 65 minutes, substituting him with Bobby Zamora, who was plainly not yet match fit, and keeping on Dean Ashton, a half-time substitute, who is still plainly seeking for form.

As for Chelsea, you could not help thinking that with this kind of form, they could have swept Spurs aside at Wembley. Whether Grant has decided that Drogba and Anelka cannot play together and must always play separately, remains to be seen. At present Chelsea have an embarrassment of riches.

Match stats

Player ratings: West Ham: Green 6, Neill 5, Ferdinand 5, Upson 6, McCartney 5, Faubert 6 (Solano 66min), Mullins 6, Noble 7, Ljungberg 6, Boa Morte 6 (Ashton ht, 6), C Cole 6 (Zamora 65min)
Chelsea: Cech 6, Ferreria 6, Carvalho 7, Terry 8, A Cole 6, J Cole 7 (Essien 69min), Makelele 6 (Alex 84min), Ballack 7, Lampard 6, Kalou 7 (Malouda 75min), Anelka 7 Star man: John Terry (Chelsea)
Yellow cards: Chelsea: Terry, Ballack Red card: Chelsea: Lampard
Referee: P Walton Attendance: 34,969