Key events
9 min Chelsea knocking it around well here. Good players + early lead = a bit of swagger.
7 min Better from West Ham as Kudus whips in a cross from the right but it just evades two West Ham shirts, Summerville the closest. Something to lift the home crowd at least.
6 min What a start for Chelsea then. An assist for Sancho and a goal for Jackson. Lopetegui will be furious that West Ham just switched off from that free-kick. Areola didn’t cover himself in glory either by allowing Jackson’s shot to creep past him.
GOAL! West Ham 0-1 Chelsea (Jackson 4)
Boom! Chelsea take a quick free-kick with West Ham sleeping. Jackson is played free down the left by Sancho and, despite the narrow angle similar to Kudus’ moments earlier, he cuts into the box and slips his shot between the goalkeeper’s legs. Chelsea lead.
4 min Kudus, playing on the right, gets the first chance of the game. He finds space in the box but has to pull the trigger with his right foot from an angle and it’s straight at the goalkeeper. But then at the other end…
3 min Chelsea in white shirts, white shorts and blue socks today. Think Italian away strip. They enjoy their first bit of possession before Cole Palmer is caught. He’s up on his feet though.
1 min Paqueta rolls the ball back for West Ham and we’re in play. A huge roar from the home crowd.
The two sides are out. It seems a pleasant enough day in East London and the pitch looks splendid.
Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca, who spent nearly two years at West Ham as an assistant, says this of his decision to start Sancho. “It was not simple because we have more players. But we decided on Jadon and hope it is the right decision.”
Summerville’s inclusion for West Ham is interesting. Then again, I’ve just had this from a mate (currently in a pub in Newport on his way to watch Leeds play Cardiff; the decor on the wall includes Michael Jackson, an American flag and Laurel & Hardy): “Hmmm. I think his level may be Championship. Really like him but he has one way of playing. Cut in from the left and shoot. Never goes the other way – outside. Teams found him out towards the end of last season.”
In this weird world we live in, I’ve been sent an AI prediction of the game from Sportscasting. This is what happens, apparently. If any of this plays out, have permission to be freaked. Then again, it seems kinda reasonable.
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Nicolas Jackson opens the scoring
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Edson Alvarez levels for West Ham with a stunning long-range effort
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Chelsea nick victory through Christopher Nkunku
TNT have got Joe Cole pitchside which seems a good idea given that he showed off his silky skills at both clubs. Cole, a good talker, says Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca has the “hardest job in the Premier League”. He worries that Chelsea are being run purely as a business.
Chelsea are the second highest scorers in the Premier League this season with eight. That’s just one goal fewer than Erling Haaland. Not bad, eh. Thanks to the decent GD via the 6-2 win at Wolves, if they win by two goals or more today they’ll jump into second place. A win for the Hammers would see them join Chelsea on seven points and lift the hosts from 14th to ninth.
West Ham Women’s team are also in action which is a bit rubbish if you actually support the men as well and want to watch both. Who came up with that scheduling? TV, I know. You can keep track of that WSL clash – Man Utd v West Ham – here. Emillia Hawkins will guide you through. It kicks off at 12pm.
So it’s a first Chelsea start for Jadon Sancho. He did well coming off the bench at Bournemouth so Enzo Maresca feels it’s worth putting the winger in from the start.
Enzo Fernandez returns in midfield while Tosin gets a first top-flight start in the Chelsea rearguard. Renato Veiga, Pedro Neto and Axel Disasi all drop to the bench.
For West Ham, there’s also a debut for a wideman as new signing Crysenscio Summerville gets the nod. Lucas Paqueta returns as expected, with Tomas Soucek and Michail Antonio the two to make way from the XI who started in the 1-1 draw at Fulham last week.
Team news
West Ham: Areola, Wan-Bissaka, Mavropanos, Kilman, Emerson, Alvarez, Rodriguez, Paqueta, Summerville, Bowen, Kudus.
Subs: Fabianski, Cresswell, Soler, Coufal, Antonio, Ings, Todibo, Soucek, Irving.
Chelsea: Sanchez, Fofana, Tosin, Colwill, Cucurella, Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez, Madueke, Palmer, Sancho, Jackson.
Subs: Jorgensen, Badiashile, Disasi, Veiga, Dewsbury-Hall, Neto, Mudryk, Joao Felix, Nkunku.
Via nice images from social media, we have the two teams…
Preamble
So far this season, it’s been far more fun to be an away supporter of West Ham and Chelsea. The Hammers’ travelling faithful have seen their side pick up four points from short trips to Crystal Palace and Fulham while Chelsea’s have made the journey home on the back of a 6-2 thumping of Wolves and a 1-0 success at Bournemouth. At home though, it’s been a very different story. West Ham have suffered back-to-back defeats (against Aston Villa and Manchester City admittedly) while Chelsea have just a single point at Stamford Bridge courtesy of a disappointing 1-1 draw with Palace.
Those Covid/empty stadium-season discrepancies surely can’t continue, or at least Julen Lopetegui hopes they won’t. David Moyes was accused of making the Hammers’ attack less than the sum of its parts and Lopetegui was supposed to reverse the equation when being appointed in the summer. It hasn’t happened so far and new manager goodwill is quick to burn out.
The good news for the Spaniard is that West Ham have strong recent history in this fixture, winning three of the last five on home soil and scoring three goals in each of those victories. Can that continue? Will the Hammers finally click? Will Chelsea have one of their good days? On the evidence of this season so far, nobody knows. Best find out then. It should be fun!
