Key events
45 min +4: Now it’s Cucurella’s turn to knock the unfortunate Fullkrug to the floor. Again, no foul. Fullkrug allows a pained look to betray his emotions. He’s been on the receiving end during this half all right.
45 min +2: Pedro slips Estevao into space down the right. Estvao goes barrelling along the touchline, but this time Todibo stays in the race and gently ushers him over the touchline. For a second there, West Ham looked exposed once more.
45 min: Graham Potter looks on pensively. A big job coming up at half-time … which is still six additional minutes away.
44 min: Bowen drives at Cucurella down the right and thinks he’s made enough space to shoot. But he hasn’t. His attempted curler towards the bottom left is immediately blocked by his opponent.
43 min: The London Stadium is pretty quiet now. Only the Chelsea fans to be heard. A lot of discontented supporters looking glumly on. West Ham haven’t done a thing since falling two goals behind.
41 min: Estevao hasn’t been perfect, of course. His loose flick set Paqueta off for West Ham’s early goal, and now he makes the same mistake again. But this time Paqueta can’t release Bowen on goal, and leaps around in impotent frustration when the attempted counter-attack breaks down.
39 min: Paqueta races to meet a loose ball on the edge of the Chelsea D, but the bounce isn’t his friend, and he can’t take it down for a shot. So he improvises, spinning around and meeting the high ball with an overhead kick. Not enough pace to trouble Sanchez, but full marks for invention. “Did Cold Palmer warm up too much and turn into gas?” wonders Tomasz Rykała, filing an early contender for Zinger of the Season.
37 min: Bowen slips Wan-Bissaka into space down the right. Fernandez, high on life after his goal, comes across to shoulder-barge his opponent off the ball, which sails out for a goal kick. The home fans don’t like it. Wan-Bissaka’s not particularly thrilled. But it’s another hard-but-fair challenge. The frustration of the home fans is palpable. And audible.
35 min: Some West Ham punters are already heading for the exits. Graham Potter is already the bookies’ favourite to become the next Premier League manager to lose his job … and this isn’t helping matters. The small margins, though, because his team were a couple of inches away from taking a 2-1 lead. But now look.
GOAL! West Ham United 1-3 Chelsea (Fernandez 33)
Cole who? Palmer’s replacement Estevao suddenly turns on the jets, latching onto Delap’s backflick down the right and dribbling into the box at an absurd pace, and with some skill. He draws a couple of defenders before squaring low for Fernandez, who can’t miss from six yards. What a sensational run by Estevao!
31 min: West Ham try to regain some sort of foothold in the match with some possession in the middle of the park. They advance as far as Chelsea’s final third, before being forced to turn tail. The visitors, after a shaky start, look comfortable right now.
29 min: Fullkrug is again livid, skittled in an aerial duel by Tosin, another blow taken to the chin. No foul, and so the striker springs up and hammers the ground with his fist while doing so. Not pleased.
27 min: Pedro is in the mood tonight. A goal and an assist already, and now he takes control of a high ball with his chest, before screeching a dipping volley over the bar from 25 yards. A good way over the bar, in truth, but full marks for ambition. What a signing he’s proved already.
25 min: Well this is quite the see-saw start to the game! Paqueta isn’t happy at all, claiming to have been fouled in the build-up by Chalobah. VAR, like the on-field referee, decides it’s hard but fair. Which is probably correct, though you’ve seen fouls given for less, too. Nobody knows anything.
GOAL! West Ham United 1-2 Chelsea (Neto 23)
Neto crosses from the left. Too long. Paqueta, on the other flank, should clear, but dithers, allowing Chalobah to step across him and nudge the ball to Pedro, whose cross is slammed home by the in-rushing Neto. He could hardly miss.
21 min: … nothing. Ward-Prowse sends it long, but Fullkrug is penalised for competing too eagerly. Pedro had a good chunk of Kilman’s shirt there. So much for Howard Webb’s latest from-thin-air edict.
20 min: That was a decent response from West Ham to conceding the equaliser, and it continues as Bowen hassles Tosin under a long ball down the left. Tosin is forced into the concession of a corner. From which …
NO GOAL! West Ham United 1-1 Chelsea
19 min: Nope, it doesn’t stand. VAR spots Todibo going a nanosecond too early, his boot offside as he nips ahead of Cucurella to meet Paqueta’s pass.
GOAL! West Ham United 2-1 Chelsea (Fullkrug 17)
A free kick for West Ham out on the left. Ward-Prowse sends a long diagonal towards Soucek, who wins a header but can’t find a team-mate. However the attack doesn’t sputter out. Paqueta slips Todibo into space down the right. Todibo cuts back. The ball’s not cleared, and drops to Fullkrug, racing in from the left. Fullkrug steadies himself and whistles a shot through a crowded box. What a game we have here!
GOAL! West Ham United 1-1 Chelsea (Pedro 15)
The corner comes in from the right. Cucurella flicks on at the near stick. Pedro powers an unmissable header home from six yards. Easy as that!
14 min: Neto teases a deep cross in from the left. It’s dropping towards Estevao, on the right-hand corner of the six-yard box. Estevao prepares to volley home, but Diouf eyebrows behind just in time. It’s only delaying the inevitable, though, because from the corner …
13 min: Chalobah lifts a pass down the inside-right channel for Pedro, who do-si-dos with Kilman, the pair falling over just inside the box. VAR has a quick check for a penalty, but there’s nothing in it.
12 min: On Sky, colour man Alan Smith is arguing that Sanchez should have done better in dealing with Paqueta’s shot, so far out was it taken. A bit harsh, it was a proper pearler. Chelsea yet to react.
10 min: Pedro and Fullkrug leap to compete for a high ball. The former crumps the latter in the jaw with his elbow. An accident, a natural movement while jumping, all that … but you’ve seen players punished for that nonetheless. This time, though, nothing. Thankfully Fullkrug is fine to continue, but he’s not particularly happy about the challenge, and tells the referee exactly how he sees it.
8 min: That is one heck of a goal. The stadium erupts. Enzo Maresca’s temper does likewise, his defence having backed off fatally there.
GOAL! West Ham United 1-0 Chelsea (Paqueta 6)
What a strike this is! Estevao loses possession cheaply near the centre circle, and Paqueta strides off down the inside-left channel. He’s not challenged … and not challenged … so he decides to unleash a screeching, dipping, diagonal purler across Sanchez from 25 yards and into the top right! Wow!
5 min: West Ham launch their first attack of the evening, Ward-Prowse winning the ball 30 yards from goal and slipping it to Wan-Bissaka on the right. Wan-Bissaka has the opportunity to release Bowen down the wing, but Bowen goes too early. Chance to bother Chelsea gone. But no matter, because …
4 min: Sky managed to catch a word with Enzo Maresca, who informed them that Cole Palmer “felt something” in the warm-up, and has been withdrawn as a precautionary measure. Maresca wouldn’t be drawn on details, but there’ll be no risking the player this evening.
2 min: A rare old atmosphere at the London Stadium. A proper Friday night, couple-or-three-pints-deep, start-of-a-bank-holiday-weekend atmosphere. Pretty bubbles in the air!
Chelsea get the ball rolling. OK, the shirt is black. I need my eyes testing. Augurs well for the MBM, doesn’t it?
Here come the teams! Hold on, is that aforementioned Chelsea shirt very dark blue, or black? It’s the internet-breaking Great Dress Debate of 2015 all over again. West Ham are in claret, this much we know. We’ll be off in a minute.
A big blow for Chelsea / boost for West Ham before kick-off. Cole Palmer has tweaked something in the warm-up, and is out. Estêvão, Chelsea’s new 18-year-old wing sensation, takes his creative brief.
Chelsea will sport their new third kit this evening. Take a quick glance, and you could be forgiven for thinking they’re cosplaying as Scotland. Closer inspection of the commemorative golden disc will however reveal two words that categorically clear up that particular confusion in double-quick time. Chelsea also become the latest club to go retro with their crest, reviving the mid-80s lion sprawled across the letters CFC, as though elegantly wasted on a chaise longue.
(For the sake of balance, West Ham are also giving their latest shirt its competitive debut tonight. It’s more claret than blue. An oblique nod to the McAvennie-Cottee glory years?)
Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca speaks to Sky. “We can attack better [than we did against Crystal Palace] … we defended quite well … in any game you can do something better … overall it was a good performance … Joao Pedro gives us many, many options … Tosin gives us experience … he is going to help us with the long ball.”
It’s only matchday two. So we’re not so far down the road as to make these season previews redundant. Hope! Fear! Excitement! Apathy! It’s all within.
Potter continues: “We need to be better in the boxes … understand when we can press … open up too soon and it can cause you problems … make it a London derby … get on the front foot … be aggressive … positive … not too much, too soon … get the balance right … we need the crowd … we’d like to get some players … we’ve got some time left.”
West Ham boss Graham Potter, facing his old club tonight, talks to Sky Sports. “We have to be ready … when you have a defeat and you are disappointed with the result, you have to analyse what you did well and what you can improve … as an away performance we were OK … you plan until you get smacked in the nose and we got smacked in the nose … the demand is that you win … any defeat is tough to take … it’s also part of the job and you have to deal with it the best you can … we’ve been honest … we have to show we can be better.”
A late kick-off this evening, so you’ve got plenty of time to grab a snack before the game. Here’s what’s being served up outside the London Stadium tonight. Pulled pork, a dish synonymous with the east end of … Memphis.
London-infused flavours are however still available. Pie, mash, liquor and jellied eel all round!
West Ham United make one change in the wake of the 3-0 debacle at the Stadium of Light. Tomáš Souček returns in midfield to take the place of Guido Rodríguez, who drops to the bench.
Chelsea make three changes after their goalless draw with Palace at Stamford Bridge. Tosin Adarabioyo, Malo Gusto and Liam Delap are in; Jamie Gittens, Josh Acheampong and captain Reece James are benched.
The teams
West Ham United: Hermansen, Todibo, Kilman, Aguerd, Wan-Bissaka, Ward-Prowse, Soucek, Diouf, Lucas Paqueta, Bowen, Fullkrug.
Subs: Areola, Walker-Peters, Wilson, Mavropanos, Rodriguez, Scarles, Potts, Irving, Marshall.
Chelsea: Sanchez, Gusto, Tosin, Chalobah, Cucurella, Fernandez, Caicedo, Pedro Neto, Palmer, Joao Pedro, Delap.
Subs: Jorgensen, Bynoe-Gittens, Essugo, Santos, Hato, James, Wesley Fofana, Acheampong, Estevao.
Referee: Michael Oliver (Northumberland).
Preamble
Here we are, then, one game into the new season, with two managers already under pressure. West Ham are coming off a three-goal spanking at newly promoted Sunderland, which, coupled with a run of just two wins in 11 at the end of last season, has plonked Graham Potter on the Premier League hot-seat. He’s the bookies’ favourite to become the first boss in the division to be given the heave-ho, after a mere 20 games in the job. He’s lost half of them. Oh Graham.
Enzo Marseca’s not in immediate danger of the sack, one wouldn’t have thought. He’s just won the Club World Cup and Conference League, for goodness sake. But he is working for trigger-happy Chelsea, and his team were thoroughly unconvincing at home against Crystal Palace last weekend. So expect noises off to be turned on should the cold start to their title challenge continue this evening. It’s the nature of the beast.
But there are straws to grab. West Ham might have finished last season poorly, but they nevertheless snagged big wins against Arsenal and Manchester United, and were the better team against champions-elect Liverpool. Chelsea meanwhile, to belabour the point, have just won the Club World Cup and Conference League. Oh, and they started sluggishly at home last season as well, before rebounding with a 6-2 away win in their second match. Eh, and they won this fixture 3-0 last year, and are currently on a three-match winning run against the Hammers to the cumulative score of 10-1. So they’re favourites to prevail here tonight, all told. Still, football is football, so let’s see if that’s right. Kick-off is at 8pm UK time. It’s on!
