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Very, very loud boos from the Stamford Bridge crowd on the half-time whistle. The Chelsea players gather before going down the tunnel but very few looks are exchanged between them, let alone words. They’ve been devoid of ideas going forward and pretty hapless at the back, especially on their left flank. Rosenior will make changes at the break – he was already chatting to Cucurella, Fofana and João Pedro before the whistle.
Half-time: Chelsea 0-2 West Ham
West Ham’s survival bid is well and truly on! They’ve outplayed Chelsea in the first 45 and it’s not even close. Wan-Bissaka and Bowen have been utterly brilliant down their right, where both of their goals have come. Bowen’s cross went all the way in for the opener, while Summerville converted from Wan-Bissaka’s cutback for the second.
45+4 min: “Attack, attack, attack!” comes from a section of the home end. The boos have been growing all half. Chelsea can swing a free-kick into the box but choose to go short to Garnacho. Fernandez’s ball is eventually headed clear.
45+2 min: Chelsea really need half-time. West Ham, playing with so much confidence, want a penalty for handball but Anthony Taylor says no. Pablo almost wriggles past Badiashile on the byline but the ball is out for a goal-kick.
45+1 min: West Ham’s corner is cleared by Chelsea. Garnacho wins the ball on halfway and gives it away poorly. There will be five minutes of added time.
45 min: West Ham break at breakneck speed! Summerville and Bowen combine sublimely and the latter carries the ball to the edge of the area, where he has a shot that’s deflected behind.
44 min: Fernandez clips the free-kick into the wall, to sarcastic cheers from the away end.
43 min: West Ham maraud down the right once more. This time Soucek’s low cross into the box misses Summerville but it’s poor defending again from Chelsea. There is respite for the hosts in the form of a free-kick won by Palmer off Pedro on the edge of the West Ham box.
41 min: Hato and Garnacho cannot deal with Bowen and Wan-Bissaka, either defensively or going forward – a pretty big oversight from Rosenior’s point of view. Cucurella is warming up.
39 min: Neto is down after being caught in the face in the West Ham box. VAR says it was accidental.
West Ham get joy down the right again! Wan-Bissaka, not tracked well enough by Garnacho, makes an underlapping run past Bowen and sends a ball back towards the D from the byline. Summerville strides on to it and hits it past Sanchez at the near post. Some finish!
GOAL! Chelsea 0-2 West Ham (Summerville 36)
It’s two! Summerville smashes Wan-Bissaka’s cut-back past Sanchez!
36 min: The West Ham counter ends with Wan-Bissaka flashing a ball across Sanchez’s goal. Castellanos tries a cross of his own but Chelsea stand firm this time. Mavropanos supresses a smirk after being barged over by Delap off the ball.
34 min: Chelsea move the ball from side to side but West Ham close off all the spaces. Garnacho floats a cross towards Neto which Diouf heads behind. The corner is headed away at the near post and West Ham come away with it.
32 min: Wan-Bissaka again stops Garnacho getting a ball into the box. Garnacho later wins the ball back near the corner flag and Caicedo makes inroads into the penalty area before skewing a shot very, very far wide.
30 min: Mavropanos is winning the physical battle against Delap. Nothing that goes up to the Chelsea striker seems to stick and West Ham’s big Greek centre-back is winning almost everything in the air.
28 min: Gusto hooks a cross to the back post, where Wan-Bissaka heads up but not away. Garnacho takes it down but has his pocket picked by Bowen and West Ham clear.
26 min: That’s a shame for Gittens, who rarely gets to start in the league. Neto comes off the bench in his place and goes to the right wing.
25 min: Gittens is in trouble. He got a heel to the knee from Summerville and is trudging back round the pitch. Neto is called back to the dugout.
23 min: Garnacho is really struggling. He started sharply with a one-two past Wan-Bissaka but now refuses to take on his former teammate. A loose pass infield is met with howls from the Chelsea supporters.
Gittens goes down on the far side and Rosenior can conveniently call a team briefing.
21 min: Chalobah and Badiashile dally around with it in their own half before Badiashile shanks a pass back to Sanchez, who slices it out for a throw. Good stuff.
19 min: Chelsea get a free-kick in shooting range after Fernandez is brought down by Fernandes (hopefully this doesn’t get confusing), although the West Ham man pretty clearly got the ball. Palmer takes it on, whips it on target but Areola pats it down.
18 min: Fernandez tries to float a ball towards Gittens, as Diouf flicks it out for a corner, which goes short and Chelsea end up back on the halfway line. An important touch, that, from Diouf.
“Dropping Scarles for Diouf is interesting to me,” writes Pax. “Scarles has been quite solid the last few games so Diouf better have been performing miracles in training.”
16 min: Sanchez saves from Castellanos! West Ham come again with Wan-Bissaka and Bowen slips in Castellanos, whose shot is well struck to the near post but stopped by Sanchez. Chelsea are on the ropes a bit.
14 min: West Ham look a real threat. Fernandes finds Summerville on the left of the area and gets it back. The midfielder’s shot is blocked before it can reach Sanchez but it draws grumbles from an otherwise quiet home crowd.
12 min: Wan-Bissaka blocks a Garnacho cross out for a corner near the boisterous away end. Areola punches clear and West Ham break with numbers. Gittens comes across to stop the counter and gets a foul off Summerville.
10 min: Chelsea look to respond as Garnacho fronts up Wan-Bissaka again. This time the winger doesn’t have the confidence to take him on and instead plays it back.
Wan-Bissaka wriggled away from Garnacho down the right and plays it into Bowen on the edge of the area. He cuts inside on to his left and floats a cross that evades Castellanos on its way to the back post, where it deceives Sanchez and finds the side netting.
GOAL! Chelsea 0-1 West Ham (Bowen 7)
West Ham strike first at the Bridge! It’s a cross from Jarrod Bowen that goes all the way in.
6 min: Garnacho ducks past his former Manchester United teammate Wan-Bissaka after playing a one-two and wins a corner. Areola flaps at the delivery but it comes to nothing.
Leroy Rosenior, formerly of West Ham, is sitting a couple of rows behind the dugout, where his son is calmly waving around instructions.
4 min: Palmer looks dangerous for Chelsea, digging out a curling cross to the back post that Wan-Bissaka does well to flick away with Garnacho waiting behind him.
2 min: West Ham have the first effort on goal. Pablo dispossesses Caicedo in midfield, feeds it to Castellanos in the penalty area but his shot is very weak indeed and Sanchez scoops it up.
Kick-off
Chelsea have a team huddle around the centre spot, for some reason. West Ham stick with tradition and their own half for theirs.
Mateus Fernandes gets the ball rolling.
Enzo Fernández and Jarrod Bowen lead the teams out. Anthony Taylor is the man in the middle. We’re ready to go.
Warm-ups are done at the Bridge. Chelsea were harking back to the 90s with their training strip based on that notorious away kit.
“I was pretty stunned to see all the changes for Chelsea,” writes Sue. “Confused - still a good line up but ‘it’s not quite Carling’. Disrespectful towards West Ham? Or just juggling to find his best team?”
To be fair to Liam Rosenior, Chelsea play again on Tuesday in the Carabao Cup against Arsenal. Rest players in that one and you risk real embarrassment. Today is their ninth game this month.
A West Ham season-ticket holder has been banned for five games after the unfurling of a banner that said “Time 2 Sell – Name Your Price” in protest at the club’s board at last weekend’s home win over Sunderland. Joshua Wood, 27, was said to have breached regulations regarding items allowed inside the London Stadium, with the banner adjudged to have been too big. He plans to appeal.
Wood said: “They’ve been clever in how they’ve approached it because they’re not saying I’ve been banned for protesting. They’re saying I’ve been banned for bringing up a banner which doesn’t fit the regulations of their dimension sizes. I have no doubt that if it said: ‘We love you, Brady and Sullivan’ we wouldn’t be talking today.”
Full time in the Premier League 3pm kick-offs
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Brighton 1-1 Everton
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Leeds 0-4 Arsenal
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Wolves 0-2 Bournemouth
West Ham can close the gap to Leeds to three points.
“Transfer wishful thought … ” writes Chelsea fan WB. “Straight swap Liam Delap for Nicolas Jackson before the window closes? We can all learn from our mistakes, no shame in it.”
Yes, Delap has not really got going since joining from Ipswich last summer. He worked with Liam Rosenior at Hull though, so … maybe it’ll all come together. Faith has been shown in him today, especially after João Pedro’s performance on Wednesday.
Remember you can get in touch with me via email if you have any predictions or thoughts on this clash. If you support Chelsea or West Ham, perhaps you have an opinion on what your club need before the transfer window shuts on Monday.
West Ham have been linked with another of Chelsea’s frozen-out players in Axel Disasi. The defender has played once this season – for the under-21s in the EFL Trophy. Chelsea are still chasing Jérémy Jacquet of Rennes.
Here’s our transfer tracker:
Raheem Sterling is no longer a Chelsea player, as of this week. He hadn’t played for 18 months and had been training alone but the 31-year-old’s lucrative contract has now been terminated.
Jacob Steinberg, who is at Stamford Bridge today, has been wondering what is next for the former England international:
Sterling’s departure is said to represent a sizeable financial saving for Chelsea. His contract, which had 18 months left, has not been paid up in full. It was time for a clean break. Sterling is too young to retire. He is probably done at the highest level but there will be managers who will back themselves to revive him.
Team news: Palmer starts for Chelsea
After his cameo off the bench against Napoli, where he set up both of João Pedro’s goals, Cole Palmer is in from the start for Chelsea today. He is one of seven changes Liam Rosenior makes to his XI from the Champions League in midweek. Estêvão is missing for personal reasons.
Nuno only makes one change from West Ham’s 3-1 win against Sunderland, with Malick Diouf making his first start since returning from Afcon, replacing Ollie Scarles. New signing Adama Traoré is on the bench.
Starting XIs
Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Sánchez; Gusto, Chalobah, Badiashile, Hato; Caicedo, Fernández; Gittens, Palmer, Garnacho; Delap.
Subs: Sharman-Lowe, James, Acheampong, Fofana, Cucurella, Santos, Neto, João Pedro, Guiu.
West Ham (4-2-3-1): Areola; Wan-Bissaka, Todibo, Mavropanos, Diouf; Soucek, Fernandes; Bowen, Pablo, Summerville; Castellanos.
Subs: Hermansen, Walker-Peters, Kilman, Scarles, Potts, Magassa, Kanté, Traoré, Wilson.
Preamble
Hello and welcome. East meets west in London today as West Ham travel across town for a visit to Stamford Bridge. Both teams, rather unusually, are in good spirits ahead of this one – Chelsea have a 100% record in the league under Liam Rosenior and beat Napoli to qualify for the last 16 of the Champions League. Meanwhile, West Ham have won their last two, including last weekend’s fairly stress-free outing against Sunderland.
Nuno Espírito Santo will be wanting to avoid a repeat of August’s 5-1 drubbing at the London Stadium, although he was still in charge of Nottingham Forest then. Graham Potter and Enzo Maresca were in the dugouts – a fair bit has changed.
Kick-off at the Bridge is 5.30pm (GMT). Team news is coming shortly.
