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Chelsea v West Ham: The Blues scored once early and twice late to break their two-game losing streak and secure all three points at Stamford Bridge on Monday.
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Thiago Silva scored his second goal for the Blues in the first 10 minutes and Tammy Abraham added a late double to secure a victory that was, in a total of 90 minutes, far less comfortable than the final score would indicate.
The victory returns Chelsea to fifth place in the Premier League table, while West Ham is down to tenth after results achieved elsewhere this weekend.
3 things we learned: Chelsea v West Ham
1. Lampard’s best attackers don’t fit in very well: Fit matters, perhaps as much or more than talent when it comes to building a coherent and fruitful offensive unit. Frank Lampard currently has a handful of very talented attacking players who don’t fit into the same team. Tammy Abraham’s delay game is fantastic, but he can only be used as a center forward, which is where Timo Werner is best prepared to play, so Werner is pushed to the left wing so that he can remain somewhat dangerous for him. goal, but that means Christian Pulisic then has to move to the right wing, where he is much less involved. The tactical dominoes are falling in the wrong direction for Lampard. It is the only way to get Chelsea’s three best (healthy) attackers together on the field, but it results in half of the four forwards being played out of position.
2. Chelsea’s transitions are a bit sloppy and very slow: Chelsea have the staff to play almost the way Lampard wants them to play (team possession / takedown, fast break or a combination of both), but the only facet that remains important is how they transition from defense to attack in the first seconds after recovering the ball: it has to be sharp, fast and it has to move the ball forward. Too many times the ball was played sideways, backwards, or towards a West Ham player. Not only does he kill the opportunity for quick opportunities at the other end, but he keeps the Chelsea defense under undue pressure where they are hardly in their prime.
3. Early goal concession doomed West Ham to failure: David Moyes’ plan before Monday’s game, and every game in his career, will have been to sit deep, absorb the pressure and hit Chelsea on the counter. It has worked wonders for the Hammers this season as they entered the weekend eighth in the table, but that plan went out the window as soon as Chelsea scored with 10 minutes left. It was the Blues who pulled out and left little to no space behind. West Ham didn’t have the staff to take them down, and they never really sniffed the goal.
The game’s first goal-scoring opportunity came in the 7th minute, and Declan Rice placed the ball in the back of the net from an incredibly tight angle, almost impossible, with several defenders running backwards and failing to clear the ball off the line . However, Rice was sufficiently offside, half a body’s width, when the free throw was taken that video review was not even required.
Chelsea responded and took the lead almost immediately, as Silva was left alone on a corner kick won by Christian Pulisic in the 10th minute. Mason Mount served the perfect ball for the Brazilian, who sent the ball home with Lukasz Fabianski defenseless. in the goal of West Ham.
Werner should have doubled Chelsea’s lead in the 43rd minute after the ball landed on Pulisic in midfield, with plenty of room and a couple of teammates ahead. Pulisic carried the ball 25-30 yards forward and slid it toward Werner immediately to his left. Werner received the pass 15 yards from goal and tried to get it under Fabianski, who made a rather difficult save look easy.
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West Ham enjoyed most of the (significant) possession in the second half, although the Hammers managed to create very little from it, partly due to the absence of anything resembling a final pass, and partly due to blocking. Chelsea defender.
Abraham opened the game wide in the 78th minute when he deftly finished off a home shot from Werner’s low cross just inside the far post.
Two minutes later, Abraham cleaned up Fabianski’s mess in front of goal to make it 3-0. Pulisic helped force the goal by challenging Fabianski as Mount’s floating center hit the back post. Fabianski had to deal with Pulisic first, which resulted in the ball spilling into the six-yard box for Abraham to jump in and finish.
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