West Brom suffered their first defeat at home to Chelsea since 2011 as the champions claimed the three points in a five-goal thriller.

After James Morrison saw his penalty saved by Thibaut Courtois, Chelsea were 2-0 up inside 30 minutes thanks to goals from Pedro and Diego Costa. Morrison pulled one back for the Baggies but Cesar Azpilicueta restored Chelsea’s two-goal advantage. John Terry was shown a second yellow card for the Blues after he brought down Salomon Rondon. Morrison headed Albion back into contention once more, but Jose Mourinho’s men held on for victory.

After the eventful game, we found five findings.

Callum McManaman

Callum McManaman has struggled to be a regular fixture in Albion’s first team since he signed in January but after heaping praise on the winger, Tony Pulis named in his starting 11 for the first time this season. The former Wigan Athletic man certainly impressed today, winning the penalty and providing a superb cross for James Morrison to head home his second goal of the afternoon.

McManaman was named as Albion’s Man of the Match and it was undoubtedly his best performance for his new club. The width that he provided was one of the positives that Tony Pulis can take from the loss; Albion created a number of chances against last season’s best defence in the Premier League and were unfortunate not to take a point away from the encounter.

Our Albion man of the match award today went to the impressive @cm_macca. Read match report here http://t.co/0ZcZMWrupB #WBA — West Bromwich Albion (@WBAFCofficial) August 23, 2015

Salomon Rondon

Another player to impress was club-record signing Salomon Rondon; the forward looked sharp and caused problems for Chelsea’s defence throughout the match. The Venezuelan was too quick for John Terry as the Chelsea skipper brought him down and was consequently shown a second yellow card.

Pulis’ decision to omit Saido Berahino has inevitably caused many people to believe that he will be on his way to Tottenham Hotspur. If this is to be the case, Rondon definitely looks to be a more than capable replacement.

Poor Defence in the First-half

Pulis is renowned for a resolute defence but this was not apparent in the first-half. The former Stoke and Crystal Palace manager labelled the Chelsea goals as ‘disappointing’ ones to concede. The back four did not appear to be as united as it was last season and Pulis will undoubtedly be working hard on this in training. The bigger teams like Chelsea will always punish poor defences and that was the case today.

Battling Character

With the score reading 3-1 to Chelsea at half-time, many would have expected the visitors to go on and comfortably win the game. However, the Baggies were a different team in the second half and came close to collecting their second point of the season. The effort shown after the break cannot be faulted and one can assume that Pulis had some harsh words to say in his team-talk.

The sending off of Terry did help West Brom, but the character shown was very pleasing from an Albion point of view. Both sides had 15 attempts, with the Baggies having one more on target than Chelsea. This shows that Pulis’ men did have the chances to equalise, and on another day, it might have been a different scoreline.

Unpredictable Premier League

Not many would have predicted such an open encounter between two sides who have both been criticised for their defensive mindset. The match was another great advert for the Premier League and it highlighted the unpredictability of it. This season has already seen some strange results, such as Bournemouth’s 4-3 victory over West Ham, and there will be many more to come this season.