Ten-men West Ham United picked up a huge three points against London rivals Chelsea as they prevailed 3-1 inside the London Stadium on Sunday evening.
Nayef Aguerd, Michail Antonio and Lucas Paqueta (penalty) were the goalscorers, as the former was also the Hammers player sent off in the second half. Carney Chukwuemeka was on the scoresheet for Chelsea but Enzo Fernandez squandered a chance from the penalty spot himself.
Goals currently look like they’re going to be very hard to come by at Chelsea as despite having many attempts on goal they could only conjure up one against 10-men West Ham United.
The west London outfit now have two Premier League games under their belt with one point to their name and just two goals scored, despite being the team on top in both fixtures. And although Todd Boehly has splashed the cash again on new players this summer, with over £300 million spent, the Blues are still finding it difficult to make their mark in the top flight.
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Debutant Moises Caicedo and fellow £100m midfielder Fernandez missed gaping chances to score and the former conceded a late penalty to end his team’s chances of rescuing a point. They both struggled to have a real impact against a retreating Hammers side after Nayef Aguerd was dismissed. And then there was Mykhailo Mudryk who still seems scarred by his poor run of form after joining the club in January. Clinical finishing and individual errors let them down and Mauricio Pochettino has got his work cut out to turn them around quickly.
In a better debut, James Ward-Prowse got off to the perfect start with his new club by doing what he does best, creating from set-pieces. An early corner to the far post found the towering Nayef Aguerd who headed the Hammers in front.
Chelsea didn’t let their heads drop, however, and they did have a lot of promising attacks to get back into the game as West Ham’s defence looked vulnerable. The Blues were back on level terms as young midfielder Carney Chukwuemeka rifled home from inside the box after some suspect West Ham defending, and the visitors were in complete control of the game.
Raheem Sterling was rolling back the years with an exquisite performance down the right side. His driving runs saw him glide past defenders as though they weren’t even there. He won Chelsea a penalty late in the first half after being brought down by Tomas Soucek. Enzo Fernandez failed to capitalise from the spot-kick as he was denied by Alphonse Areola in goal.
Despite Chelsea’s dominance it was West Ham who grabbed the third goal of the game as Michail Antonio was sent through on goal by Ward-Prowse And made no mistake to find the bottom corner to restore his side’s lead. This certainly sparked the Hammers into life and they started to threaten a lot more on the break, mostly through Said Behnrahma on the left flank.
Things quickly took a turn for the hosts when goalscorer Aguerd was shown a second yellow card for a reckless challenge on Nicolas Jackson, leading to Benrahma being replaced by defender Angelo Ogbonna.
With West Ham sitting deeper, they had to deal with wave after wave of Chelsea attacks but they were putting their bodies on the line to shut them out and hold on to a valuable three points. And they were able to wrap the game up late on when they were awarded a late penalty, which was coolly dispatched by Paqueta.
