In an encounter that finished in a feisty manner, Liam Rosenior’s side roared back from two goals down to beat West Ham United 3-2.
Though the Hammers were clearly the better team first half, Rosenior’s changes gave the Blues a new lease of life as they started finding pockets of space against Nuno Espirito Santo’s low block.
Initially, West Ham found gaps wide and in the half-spaces in between Chelsea’s full-back and centre-back. This led to two goals that came from the same wing, first by Jarrod Bowen and then Crysencio Summerville.
Rosenior must’ve given a resounding half-time team talk as his Chelsea side came back in the second half, scoring three goals to come back and win.
The game ended up in an extremely feisty manner with tensions spilling over. Jean-Clair Todibo was sent off late on, but in truth, many players were booked as they got involved in a scuffle close to the corner flag.
Chelsea also created history by coming back from two goals for the first time ever in the Premier League to win.
In this article we’ll cover:
West Ham’s excellent first half
Nuno Espirito Santo got it spot on and will be furious at the manner in which West Ham threw away the game.
They exploited Chelsea in-possession and nullified them without the ball. Both the Bowen and Summerville goals came from a winger out wide being pressed by a Chelsea full-back.
As soon as this happened, a huge gap opened up in between the Blues’ full-back and centre-back for a West Ham player to dart into and exploit.
Alejandro Garnacho was culpable for both goals. Though he is a winger, he offered no support or help in terms of tracking back for Jorrel Hato.
Nuno is an underrated attacking coach, everyone is aware of how well he sets up his teams to frustrate teams defensively, but it was salient to watch both Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Malick Diouf push up in attack and provide width.
From this, Chelsea had to push out quickly to their full-backs but also worry about the extra players West Hamm could flood the box with.
Out of possession, West Ham’s block clogged the middle of the pitch. Tomas Soucek noticeably man-marked Enzo Fernandez out of the game and whenever one of Chelsea’s half-space pocket players received the ball, a West Ham midfielder pressed them.
If Chelsea went wide, the full-backs were extremely aggressive in closing them down and pushing up against them to deny them space.
They were aggressive enough to cause a problem for Chelsea’s wingers whilst also not conceding many fouls.
In addition to this, the manner in which Chelsea set up in the first half was a little baffling. Alejandro Garnacho up against Wan-Bissaka 1v1 who is clearly one of the best defenders in the world in 1v1 battles.
Nuno may rue the fact that when West Ham sunk deeper into a low block, it invited pressure from Chelsea and eventually they turned the game over.
But, in the first half there are positives to take as they were the better team.
Rosenior’s Tweaks
So, what changed in the second half?
Well, Enzo Fernandez was sick of being tracked by Soucek so he dropped deeper for the ball and Chelsea’s attacking changes were excellent.
Joao Pedro in particular is quickly becoming Chelsea’s go-to player to grab a game by the scruff of it’s neck.
There were no players in the first half that received in the middle of the pitch and sprayed the ball progressively or wide.
That changed in the second half because Pedro was deeper with Fernandez, meaning, if a West Ham defender decided to go out and press it left space in behind.
Also, even though Chelsea had players deeper (further away from goal) they still possess enough players in the pockets to pick a pass out.
Two of Rosenior’s substitutions scored and had a massive impact. The full-backs pushed on advanced with West Ham inviting pressure, but Malo Gusto and Marc Cucurella didn’t only position themselves wide, they dropped into the half-spaces in between the full-back and centre-backs.
All three of Chelsea’s goals came as a result of crosses and getting the ball into the box. In fact every goal in the game involved crossing as the key mechanism to scoring, but Chelsea needed to pull West Ham’s midfield to one side first in order to create space for the full-backs.
Perhaps because Chelsea are taking the Carabao Cup seriously or we are in January and Rosenior wants to keep the team fit, but ringing the changes before the start of the game made Chelsea look like a team completely out of sync and easily exploitable.
It was a game of two halves, though West Ham lost they can take heart from the fact Nuno got it spot on for 45 minutes and going so pragmatic so early in the second half (switching to 5-3-2) may have been a negative move that backfired.
For Chelsea, they will go into the Carabao Cup semi-final with Arsenal on Tuesday on a high and though Rosenior got the first half wrong, his tweaks were impressive and saved the day.
Since taking charge, it’s now 6 wins in 7.
Perhaps it’s unexpected after Enzo Maresca’s departure and though there are things to work on, this start from the former Fulham player has been nothing short of brilliant.