Chelsea Match Preview

Two weeks ago, West Ham United went to The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and won their first London derby of the season. A fortnight on from that success in North London, the Hammers will attempt to emulate that result, as well as stretching their three- match unbeaten run even further as they go West and face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in today’s early evening kick-off.

It took time for Nuno Espírito Santo to pick up his first away win in charge of his current club but, now he has one, he is desperate for another to arrive as soon as possible.

This may be a tricky fixture to come out on top of for the Irons, as today’s hosts are on a similar run to their opponents and you have to go back to November 2019 for the last time that the East Londoners won here. Having said that though, Chelsea were involved in UEFA Champions League action just three days ago and have a Carabao Cup first-leg deficit to turn around against Arsenal three days after this encounter, so the Irons’ Head-Coach will be hoping that the home side may have their minds focused elsewhere and that his team could follow the examples of both Sunderland and Aston Villa in taking all three points back to the East End.

Espírito Santo picked up his first away success in their last venture from Stratford and were their current run of form to come to a shuddering halt today, they will hope to start it up again when they are on their travels for the second away game in the space of a week, as they face a crucial game against newly-promoted Burnley at Turf Moor next Saturday.

The visitors will hope they don’t suffer a repeat of the 5-1 trouncing by the Blues back on August 22 when the two teams were under the respective management regimes of Graham Potter and Enzo Maresca. However, this time around, Espírito Santo will test himself against a man with no previous Premier League experience in former Derby County and Hull City Head-Coach Liam Rosenior. To be fair to Rosenior though, he has settled into top-flight life extremely well, with the 3-2 Carabao Cup defeat to the Gunners being the only one that he has endured since being appointed on 6 January.

West Ham finally clinched the signing of winger Adama Traoré on Wednesday and Espírito Santo stated in his pre-match news conference twenty four hours later that he is fit enough and in contention to go straight into the side. There is still no mention of when Venezuelan winger Keiber Lamadrid will be involved in the squad.

Youngster Oliver Scarles has been given an extended taste of first-team action while El Hadji Malick Diouf was at the Africa Cup of Nations, but he may drop back to the bench if the Head-Coach opts for a more experienced head in defence.

The Portuguese may well have Freddie Potts amongst the matchday squad, but he can no longer call upon the services of midfielder Lucas Paquetá or 18-year-old winger Elisha Sowunmi, as both have secured moves away from the club.

The match is a 5:30pm kick-off with live coverage being screened by Sky Sports from 5pm. The referee is Anthony Taylor.