After losing three consecutive home games for the first time in 28 years, Thomas Tuchel’s blues took on a West Ham that were responsible for Chelsea’s first away defeat of the premier league season.
West Ham’s Manager made wholesome changes (6) to his side with an eye on the hammers Europa league game against Frankfurt in midweek. The changes weren’t evident on the game as the hammers started with the plan to frustrate the blues often having all players behind the ball.
The first half was a drab affair with Chelsea looking to break down the West Ham rearguard but struggled to do so with the blues often slow in possession and making too many sloppy passes.
The second half started with West Ham growing in confidence and the hammers had the upper hand in the early minutes pushing higher up into Chelsea’s half.
With the game following suit of Chelsea difficulty in breaking low-blocks, Tuchel rang the changes with the introduction of Lukaku, Ziyech and Pulisic all for Harvertz, Loftus-Cheek and Werner. Those changes added a bite to the attack line of Chelsea with Ziyech and Pulisic looking to get back on form and Lukaku with a chance to redeem himself before the Stamford Bridge faithfuls won a penalty after he was pulled to the ground by the impressive Craig Dawson who saw his yellow card converted to red after ref Michael Oliver was advised to have a look on the incident by the VAR.
Jorginho took the resulting penalty and missed after a very weak kick by the Italian international.
That wasn’t to be the last drama of this London derby and with West Ham holding on tight to a point, Chelsea broke down the left with the ever busy Mason Mount driving with the ball before feeding Alonso whose cut back was side-footed into the net by Pulisic to send the fans into a frenzy.
The losing streak at the Bridge ends with a 1-0 victory. Here are 5 lessons learned as the blues bounce back at home;
Wing-backs remain a big miss;
It’s no coincidence that Chelsea’s downward spiral began after the Juventus match at the Bridge. The game saw Chelsea pick up a massive 4-0 win with Chilwell injuring his knee and Tuchel confirming the Englishman had played his last game of the season.
Here at Bridge against West Ham, Chelsea were often too narrow in the absence of both Recce James and Chilwell with Loftus-Cheek and Alonso (The wingbacks) often tucking in. The speed and directness offered by both Chilwell and James has been sorely missed on the flanks for most part of this season and that has contributed to Chelsea’s drop.
One time here Chelsea found speed down the flanks resulted in the goal with a lovely cut back from Alonso for Pulisic. If Chelsea are to find a solution against teams with a low-block, the wingbacks have got to be able to stretch teams with pace as it was customary last season and the early part of this season.
Kante performs;
It’s been a rather weird few weeks for Chelsea faithfuls who have had to see a man as consistent like N’golo Kante struggle for form.
Kante was previously mooted as untouchable in the Chelsea lineup but his poor or average performances in games against Madrid and Brentford has seen that thought evaporate amongst fans with many calling for the Frenchman to be dropped.
Against West Ham, Kante got back to his best intercepting passes and covering every blade of grass available, with Jorginho behind him granting the former Leicester man the license to roam.
Kante drove with the ball on a couple of occasions and in a rather drab first half, Kante was the only shining light. Kante also was responsible via a deflection for Chelsea’s first shot on target.
Jorginho’s troubles;
Since Italy missed out on the World Cup, Brazilian born Italian, Jorginho has struggled to perform at his usual standards and with the trauma of missing a crucial penalty in the game against Switzerland that led to Italy needing a playoff to qualify, Jorginho held himself responsible for Italy’s failure to qualify.
Jorginho has since struggled to produce his best performances and got Tuchel irate at Wembley after he was caught in possession on multiple occasions due to his sluggishness on the ball.
Here at the Bridge, Chelsea got awarded a penalty on the 86th minute, up stepped the most reliable Chelsea penalty taker, Jorginho skipped, hopped and missed with a Fabianski making as simple a save he’d ever get to make. Jorginho needs some space to breathe but the absence of Kovaciç makes that difficult.
Rattled Captain;
One of the most reliable players in Chelsea’s history, Captain Caesar Azpilicueta has suffered a blip recently and got lucky on occasions against West Ham.
Playing in an unfamiliar role off the left of the back three, Azpilicueta was caught in possession a couple of times and his lose touches could have been punished on other days with the Spaniard often bailed out by Thiago Silva.
In an uncharacteristic challenge in midweek, Azpilicueta was penalized for pulling and dragging Saka which led to Arsenal being awarded a spot kick late in the game. Age might just be catching up with Caesar.
Subs make a difference;
It has been a reason of frustration for Chelsea fans this season with Tuchel’s subs often failing to deliver in crucial moments but that was rectified today with the substitute all playing a part in the victory after being introduced.
Lukaku, Ziyech and Pulisic all looked fresh after coming on and the injection of a different dynamism meant the West Ham back line had a different problem to face, one they failed to find a solution to.
Ziyech supplied width on the right, Lukaku was fouled for the penalty Jorginho missed, while Pulisic score the winner late on. All three Tuchel subs having an impact!
Man of the Match: Mason Mount 9/10
Chelsea return to action on Thursday to face Manchester United at the Old Trafford.
