Both West Ham United and Chelsea went winless in their opening Premier League fixtures. So the stage was set for an intriguing London derby under the Friday night lights.
To add to the drama, Chelsea talisman Cole Palmer was ruled out due to injury in the warm up. Lucas Paqueta added insult to injury by giving the Hammers a dream start with a long-range screamer.
But that was as good as it got for West Ham. Less than 10 minutes later, Enzo Maresca’s men were back on level terms as Joao Pedro nodded home a well-worked corner routine. It marked the Brazilian’s first Premier League goal for the Blues and the beginning of a truly dominant display by Chelsea.
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Chelsea wasted little time before going ahead. Pedro Neto pounced after a sloppy turnover, latching onto Pedro’s wicked cross to finish smartly following a nifty blindside run that caught Aaron Wan-Bissaka off guard. A superb reaction indeed from Chelsea after falling behind.
The pattern of the game established was established. Chelsea were dominating possession while West Ham remained in a mid or deep block. And so the Blues continued to flex their muscles while capitalising on West Ham’s disastrous defending — particularly at set pieces — to stroll to a sensational 1-5 triumph.
Chelsea found some shrewd mechanics to enjoy against the hapless Hammers. And there were many interesting tactical takeaways from their swashbuckling performance.
In-sync right side
One of the key workings was when Estevao dropped deep to lure Nayef Aguerd out of position. It created room for Liam Delap to target the gap between the left centre-back and wing-back. This astute mechanic also helped Estevao engineer two-on-one overloads against Paqueta when he wasn’t followed to give him the time and space to wreak havoc.
The way Malo Gusto would occasionally rotate infield with the Brazilian phenom increased their nuisance and the strain on the Hammers’ setup. This also proved a fruitful avenue to unlock their foes.
A testament to the success of this strategy came for Chelsea’s third goal. Estevao dropped into the dangerous right half-space and sparked the sequence to life by drawing out Aguerd while Gusto tied up El Hadji Malick Diouf out wide.
Delap then made a clever dart down the channel, before being fed and pinpointing the forward-facing Estevao. The Brazilian continued his run into the space vacated by Delap’s movement, with a lovely one-touch layoff. Estevao showed immense composure and clarity of mind to carry on his surge upfield. And he managed to find the rampaging Enzo Fernandez, who tapped in with aplomb to cap off a brilliant team passage.
Midfield coherence
How Chelsea looked to combine centrally using Fernandez, Pedro, Estevao and Delap added another layer of menace. They expertly occupied areas between the lines and combined to ensure a teammate could take possession in forward-facing postures to inject speed and momentum into their attacks against West Ham’s retreating and manipulated backline.
They ran riot and sliced through West Ham at will. This was despite Graham Potter making multiple tweaks in the second half, including initially switching to a 4-3-3. Further upside could be extracted from when Pedro checked deep, which was the cue for Fernandez to push on and take advantage of West Ham being focused on the Brazilian.
These counter movements, in combination with the intelligent Delap regularly pinning multiple trackers, elevated Chelsea’s threat handsomely while successfully placing their opponents in unfavourable conditions to deal with the free-flowing Blues.
Extra highlights came from Tosin Adarabioyo’s inclusion giving Chelsea a greater penetrative vertical passing impetus. And when Moises Caicedo and Fernandez would smoothly venture deeper to assist in build-up.
Ruthless Blues
Chelsea were clinical and ruthless. They made the most of their chances by scoring their five goals from just seven shots on target and 2.8 Expected Goals. Statistics like this did little to help West Ham’s cause.
The Hammers regrettably conceded three goals from dead-ball situations and their defending fell severely short in critical moments.
“Fuming, disappointing,” West Ham captain Jarrod Bowen told Sky Sports after the game.
“All the emotions that come with being on the back of conceding eight goals in two games and not picking up a point yet. We didn’t really make them work for those three from set pieces, which we’ve always prided ourselves on over the years. We gifted the goals away.”
On the other side of the coin, Maresca cut a delighted figure in his post-match comments.
“The start was not the best in the way we planned with Cole Palmer’s injury and conceding a goal after five minutes, but the reaction from the players is something that is very good to me,” he reflected.
“Especially you could see how confident they were about the game plan. They stuck to the game plan on and off the ball and continued in the same way. I am very happy, very impressed.”
All in all, this was a real statement performance from Chelsea, that saw them execute their manager’s demands to devastating effect.
For West Ham, however, the outlook is far more bleak. After two crushing defeats, questions will inevitably intensify surrounding Potter’s future, with the threat of the sack looming large.