West Ham 1-2 Chelsea Nine Things: Blues imperfect but sturdy

Chelsea celebrate the 2nd – bbc.co.uk

Goals from Eden Hazard and Diego Costa helped Chelsea go ten points clear at the top of the Premier League with a 2-1 win at West Ham – but what have we learnt from the game?

West Ham’s strong start

Slaven Bilic’s side pressed superbly in the first 25 minutes. They had Chelsea pinned back at times as Pedro Obiang battled well in midfield while Aaron Cresswell and Robert Snodgrass made tracks down the left. Diego Costa, usually snapping at the heels of centre-backs, gave Jose Fonte and Winston Reid too much time on the ball while other players didn’t engage with the man in possession early enough.

New side to Fabregas?

During this tricky start, Cesc Fabregas was part of the reason Chelsea did not fall behind. He tracked runners and denied Manuel Lanzini space in front of the defence, leaving the back-three free to handle Andy Carroll.

Carroll ineffective

The target man would often drift to the back post when the cross came in, but he would often mistime his jump. Not helped by poor deliveries from Sofiane Feghouli, Carroll was well contained by David Luiz, Cesar Azpilicueta and on one occasion, Victor Moses.

West Ham’s defensive naivety

West Ham’s positioning for Eden Hazard’s counter-attacking opener was atrocious. N’Golo Kante did well to intercept the ball then send Pedro and Hazard away, but the duo’s pace should have provoked caution. Instead, West Ham had Obiang and Cresswell, both left-sided players, furthest back when handling a breakaway on their right. It is debatable whether both Fonte and Reid should have gone up, but if so, Cheikhou Kouyate staying back would seem a necessity and yet he was nowhere to be seen. All the team’s good early work was undone by one moment of naivety as Hazard rounded Darren Randolph to tap home.

Chelsea grew in influence

After the goal, Chelsea immediately looked more confident in their positioning without the ball and they closed down at the right times. After another 15 minutes, they started to pose a threat on the break and exploit the space behind Mark Noble, who lacked the pace to recover when he pushed up the pitch. Another who closed down prematurely once was Fonte and Hazard got in to cross for Moses, who was denied by Cresswell’s block then Pedro, by Randolph’s save.

Costa got his goal

It is fair to say Costa has had better games for Chelsea, but he got his 17th goal of the campaign from Fabregas’ 50th minute corner. After some good decoy runs from Luiz and Gary Cahill, Obiang inadvertently flicked the ball into the danger area and Reid lost Costa, who turned the ball in. After another breakaway led again by Kante and Hazard, Costa turned in the box and fired over from close-range.

Chelsea sat back

Apart from that moment, Chelsea rarely attacked after the second goal, though Fabregas had a speculative late effort after a lay-off from substitute Willian. Other arrivals Kurt Zouma and Nemanja Matic replaced the team’s three quickest players – Moses, Pedro and Hazard. The trio’s exits seemed surprising, given that a lot of Chelsea’s better moments had originated through breakaways. West Ham legs tired in the latter stages with some misplaced passes – this might have been exploited further.

West Ham’s poor end product

The fact the Hammers did not score in the latter stages was down largely to good defending of the box from Chelsea’s centre-backs including the imperious Cahill. However, when the Hammers did get into good positions, their deliveries and shots from range were of poor quality. Their best efforts came when Feghouli’s shot was blocked on the line by Moses on 61 minutes before Fonte headed wide moments later, then Lanzini scored a consolation goal in added time.

What it means

West Ham needed a good result – if not so much for an obvious, immediate objective as political reasons. Moving stadiums has understandable been difficult for supporters and there was a need for them to win a London derby game like this one to lift the feeling around the club. The Hammers were instead let down by defensive lapses and a lack of quality in the final third.

There are elements of Chelsea’s performance that Antonio Conte will want to improve – they could have been quicker to the ball early on and offered more on the break in the second half. Throughout this imperfect display however, we could always see a team that defended sturdily and worked tirelessly for one another. It is on those qualities that Chelsea build their march to the finishing line.