Chelsea surged into eighth place on the Premier League ladder following a 2-1 win over Norwich City at Carrow Road on Tuesday.
The Blues opened the scoring inside the opening minute, with Kenedy unleashing a powerful strike from outside the edge of the area that rocketed into the back of the net to give the visitors an early lead.
Chelsea doubled their advantage right on the stroke of half-time with Diego Costa calmly finishing past Canaries shot-stopper John Ruddy, despite clearly appearing to be offside in the build-up to the goal.
Nathan Redmond offered the home side a slight glimmer of hope when he found the back of the net with just over 20 minutes remaining, but Chelsea were too strong and disciplined on their way to picking up all three points.
MATCH OVERVIEW
Norwich City: 1 (Nathan Redmond 68')
Chelsea: 2 (Kenedy 1', Diego Costa 45+1')
Carrow Road, Norwich – 27,091
TALKING POINTS
Chelsea are now undefeated in 11 Premier League matches under interim boss Guus Hiddink and will now consider themselves in with a chance of securing a Europa League spot come season's end following their rapid rise up the table.
Norwich meanwhile are headed in the opposite direction, with no wins from their past eight fixtures. The Canaries now find themselves in the relegation zone, with a dramatic form turnaround required t change their fortunes.
WHAT'S NEXT?
Norwich travel to the Liberty Stadium to face on Saturday, while Chelsea welcome Stoke to Stamford Bridge.
TWITTER INSIGHT
Diego Costa celebrates at the final whistle... #CFChttps://t.co/CU0DiwKV5r
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) March 1, 2016
Another important three points today! #cfcpic.twitter.com/sksxMpZxvU
— Thibaut Courtois (@thibautcourtois) March 1, 2016
QUOTES CORNER
Norwich manager Alex Neil was upset with his side's defending for the opening goal:
"The first goal is a real disappointment for us. We have six behind the ball and the left back scores. The second is offside and you expect the officials to get that. The fact is we didn't really get exposed for the first goal but didn't deal with it and shut down quick enough."
Chelsea manager Guus Hiddink gave Norwich credit for making the match a difficult one for his side:
"We didn't want to go into the battle but they forced us. We were sloppy in the first half, starting well with a beautiful goal and I think we could have finished it in the first half. We were complacent in the last pass. They made our life difficult."
STATS SPECIALS
*Thanks to Opta
3 - Chelsea have won three successive Premier League matches for the first time since April 2015. Relief.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) March 1, 2016
39 - Kenedy scored after 39 seconds against Norwich, the quickest Premier League goal of the season. Rapid.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) March 1, 2016
3 - All three shots on target in the Norwich v Chelsea match have been scored so far. Effective.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) March 1, 2016