Chelsea 3 West Ham 2
A game of two halves. It’s obviously cliché to say but it really was a game of two halves. Chelsea were absolutely awful in the first half and couldn’t have complained if they were 3 nil down going into half time, West Ham were excellent in the first half with Bowen, Summerville and Wan-Bissaka in particular cutting Chelsea apart time after time on the break. West Ham were well worthy of their two goal lead and could have had a third if it wasn’t for Robert Sanchez in the Chelsea goal. Chelsea looked a completely different team after half-time with Liam Rosenior making three changes at half-time bringing on Joao Pedro, Cucurella and Wesley Fofana with all three contributing to a goal or an assist to turn the game around in the second half. It’ll be absolutely gutting for Nuno Espirito Santo to let a two goal lead slip away in the second half but he can certainly take positives from that first half.
Joao Pedro is undroppable under Liam Rosenior. There were some eyebrows raised before kick-off when the team sheets came out with Chelsea making 7 changes from the midweek match against Napoli and you could certainly see the difference between the squad players and starters for Chelsea in that first half. I was shocked to see Joao Pedro not starting after scoring two brilliant goals on Wednesday and his absence left a real hole in Chelsea’s attack in that first half. As soon as the second half started you could see the difference he makes scoring a header to get Chelsea back into the game then setting up Enzo Fernandez for the winner late on, he looks reborn under Liam Rosenior and is by far Chelsea’s best attacker at the minute.
A dagger for West Ham’s survival bid. To be honest West Ham looked like a team fighting for Europe in that first half tearing Chelsea apart time after time down that right-hand-side with Bowen and Wan-Bissaka but they couldn’t find that third goal that probably would have killed the game in the first half. The second half was a disaster from a West Ham point of view giving Chelsea attack after attack to eventually get back into the game, by the 90th minute Nuno was probably happy enough with a point but that Enzo goal will have really annoyed Nuno who had enough defenders on the pitch to prevent a late goal. You could point to Nuno going too defensive too early bringing on Max Kilman for Pablo in the 67th minute when West Ham were 2 1 up only for Chelsea to get the equaliser 3 minutes later but you can understand why he went defensive to try and stop Chelsea’s onslaught of attacks but it didn’t work and leaves West Ham 5 points away from safety in the league.
What on Earth was that performance from Alejandro Garnacho? As a United fan I’ve seen this performance before from Garnacho but honestly this might have been the worst half I’ve seen from a player this season, he was terrified to take on Wan-Bissaka all half giving the ball away again and again but what was really unforgivable was his lack of work-rate tracking Wan-Bissaka when West Ham went forward which was costly in West Ham’s second goal as Wan-Bissaka was as free as a bird in the Chelsea box to cross to Summerville. It’s quite clear that Garnacho is at his best coming from the bench running at tired legs but when he starts he looks like a completely different player and I’m surprised Rosenior didn’t bring him off before the first half finished to be honest.
Can Chelsea juggle 4 competitions this season? It’s been quite the introduction for Liam Rosenior as Chelsea boss managing in 4 different competitions but I wonder if Chelsea can juggle all 4 and still keep up a high level in the league in particular? Chelsea have a big squad but the drop-off in quality from the bench was clear in this game. Rotation is obviously important but I don’t think you can make 7 changes each game and still expect performance levels to stay at a high level, it didn’t cost Chelsea today but I expect Rosenior has learnt his lesson in terms of changing more than half the team for a Premier League game.