Home Slump Continues For Hammers
It may be a new season but West Ham United have stretched their losing home run into the new campaign, making it two defeats from two, as Chelsea beat them 5-1 in Stratford in the first London derby of the new term.
Graham Potter made one change to the side that ended up being comprehensively beaten away at newly-promoted Sunderland six days earlier, as Tomáš Souček came into the starting line-up to replace Guido Rodríguez, who dropped to the bench.
Kyle Walker-Peters and Callum Wilson were amongst the substitutes once again as were youngsters Oliver Scarles and Freddie Potts. Another Development Squad player also joined them as Callum Marshall was also named in the matchday squad.
The hosts made the perfect start as they were ahead inside six minutes when Lucas Paquetá sent a powerful shot past visiting goalkeeper Robert Sánchez. El Hadji Malick Diouf and Nayef Aguerd had combined to good effect to set the Brazilian midfielder away. The majority inside the stadium were going wild and they know that Enzo Maresca’s men are notoriously slow starters so were eager to see what would unfold.
The visitors equalised with just fifteen minutes gone when João Pedro headed past home goalkeeper Mads Hermansen after Marc Cucurella had met Pedro Neto’s corner.
Minutes later, the home side wrestled the advantage back when a great team move resulted in Niclas Füllkrug beating Sánchez but VAR intervened and correctly called Jean-Clair Todibo offside in the build-up meaning it remained level.
It took the Blues just eleven more minutes to turn the game on its head when Neto was too quick for Aaron Wan-Bissaka and was able to finish past Hermansen.
From that point on, the floodgates had opened for Chelsea, as before half-time, Enzo Fernández had added a third.
Sánchez was alert to keep out another effort from Paquetá, while captain Jarrod Bowen also tried his luck but his attempt was easy for the Spaniard too.
Due to the celebrations after one of Chelsea’s goals, the game was halted for six minutes, meaning that time was added for stoppages before referee Michael Oliver blew the half-time whistle. In complete reverse to the game at The Stadium of Light last time out, it looked like it was damaged limitation for the Hammers already.
Potter brought on both Wilson and Potts during the break for Füllkrug and Todibo but that didn’t inspire any comeback from the hosts, as Chelsea continued in cruise control and could have further increased their advantage but the home faithful were given a reprieve when Fernández wasn’t able to add to his tally for the evening. The Portuguese made up for his error just minutes later when he delivered a corner from which Hermansen dropped the ball and Moisés Caicedo was on hand to put the ball in the back of the net with barely ten minutes of the second-half having been played.
It got even worse for the Irons on fifty eight minutes, as Trevoh Chalobah scored after picking up the ball from João Pedro’s knockdown.
Both managers made changes on sixty nine minutes. Potter introduced Walker-Peters to take the place of Souček, while Maresca withdrew Malo Gusto, Chalobah, and Cucurella in favour of Reece James, Wesley Fofana and Jorrel Hato.
What promised to be a memorable occasion under the lights in Stratford turned out to be a largely forgettable one. Thankfully though, Potter’s men are back in action on Tuesday night when they will try and progress to the Carabao Cup third-round when they travel to Molineux for an all Premier League tie against Wolverhampton Wanderers.
One piece of transfer news that has now been confirmed is that Edson Álvarez has left East London to join Turkish outfit Fenerbahçe SK on an initial season-long loan with a view to a permanent move. As always, if any more deals are finalised, this site will carry the details.