NEWS-FINANCE -QUOTE-EDUCATIONAL AND MOTIVATIONAL
Key events
FULL TIME: West Ham United 1-5 Chelsea
For the second season running, Chelsea respond to an underwhelming opening-day result with a big away win. West Ham’s performance is met with loud booing … from the fans who have stuck it out until the end. A lot of them already long gone.
90 min +1: A cross comes into the West Ham box from the right. Neto meets it with his head, sending it onto the outstretched arm of Aguerd. He wants a penalty, but VAR considers the players too close together. Nothing doing. It might have been a different decision had the scoreline been 0-0, but we’ll never know about that.
90 min: Three minutes of additional agony for the Hammers.
89 min: … and it pings off Caicedo and out for a corner. Ward-Prowse sends it long from the left. Kilman wins an uncontested header six yards out, but sends it harmlessly wide right. West Ham have been dismal overall, and yet they’ve had their chances in this second half.
88 min: Ward-Prowse tries to bring a loose ball down on the edge of the Chelsea D, but is brought down himself by the loose leg of Fofana. Free kick just to the right of the D. Ward-Prowse to take it himself …
87 min: Anyway, on the subject of fans leaving early, Alexander Smith reports: “I live close to the stadium and looked out at the road used by home fans to access public transport. I thought the match had just finished as there were streams of people cascading down the road – but with none of the usual jovial chanting. I figured it was a loss for West Ham, but it was only when I searched up the live blog that I saw the score and realised it was only the 60th minute of the game!
86 min: Bowen has never stopped running, though, and now his hard-driving style wins a corner down the right off Tosin. Ward-Prowse swings it in, and Aguerd clanks another header over the bar.
85 min: This match is petering out, a state of affairs West Ham will take. They won’t want any more scoreboard punishment.
83 min: Neto jinks his way down the right and draws a cynical foul from Diouf. The referee’s card remains in his pocket. Neto felt that, though. To be fair, Diouf is apologetic and offers the hand of friendship, helping his man back up.
81 min: … Aguerd heads harmlessly over. West Ham unable to pull off Chelsea’s trick.
80 min: Bowen is sent scampering down the right flank by Walker-Peters, and wins himself a corner. From which …
79 min: … meanwhile there are a lot of empty seats around the stadium. Plenty of home fans have departed in high dudgeon. The ones who remain are serenaded by the away end. “Can we play you every week?”
78 min: Chelsea stroke it around the middle of the park. Their fans with the olés. Already. Any old excuse …
77 min: Gittens comes on for Estevao, who has made quite the impression tonight. Colder than Cole?
76 min: Neto probes down the left but can’t find anyone in black in the middle. Chelsea want six. Then they can consider seven, and then Blackburn Rovers.
74 min: For the record, West Ham’s biggest home defeat was an 8-2 loss to Blackburn Rovers at Upton Park on that Boxing Day in 1963. We’re not in that arena yet.
72 min: … and it’s nearly six for Chelsea, with Estevao sent clear down the inside-right channel by James. He overthinks upon entering the box, and can neither get round Diouf nor dink over Hermansen.
71 min: Walker-Peters comes on for Soucek, and is immediately in the thick of the action. Wilson dances through the Chelsea box, left to right, but can’t make enough space for a shot, despite at one point sitting down Tosin. He lays off to Walker-Peters, whose shot from a tight angle on the right is blocked. Much better from West Ham, though the horse has long bolted.
70 min: Chelsea swap out three members of their defence. Cucurella, Chalobah and Gusto make way for Hato, Fofana and James.
68 min: Soucek’s right-wing cross is half-cleared to Potts, who sends a shot towards the top-right corner from the edge of the box. Sanchez tips over spectacularly, but the flag goes up for offside anyway.
67 min: Bowen advances down the right again and cuts back for Soucek, whose first-time shot disappears into Sanchez’s midriff. The last couple of minutes have been a little better for West Ham, though the bar is set so ridiculously low it’s almost subterranean.
66 min: West Ham blockistant coach Bruno is booked for telling it as he sees it.
65 min: Bowen jigs down the right and digs out a cross that Wilson heads over. It wasn’t the easiest chance, to be fair.
64 min: Graham Potter stands stock-still on the touchline, staring into the distance/abyss. Deep in an executive box, co-owner David Sullivan is caught on camera deep in thoughts of his own. Just over one-and-a-half matches into the new season, and Graham Potter’s coat hangs on a shoogly peg.
62 min: Delap makes way for Andrey Santos. “Does Palmer get back into the team?” half-jokes Dean Moull.
61 min: Fernandez slices a shot over the bar from the edge of the West Ham box. This could get really ugly for the home side.
60 min: The booing is really loud now. Even more fans make for the exits. One irate punter make a beeline for the pitch, but his preposterous strivings are futile. Another supporter is pictured in the stand, hands on head, smiling wryly. What else can you do? West Ham have fallen apart.
GOAL! West Ham United 1-5 Chelsea (Chalobah 58)
Neto swings the corner in from the right. Hermansen flaps again. As the keeper sprawls, Pedro heads down for Chalobah, who sweeps home from six yards. Easy as that!
57 min: Delap nearly releases Estevao with a cute reverse pblock down the inside-right channel. Estevao enters the box but just as he prepares to shoot, Diouf arrives and pokes behind for a corner. From which …
56 min: Graham Potter bites his nails nervously as more fans make towards the out-door, steam pouring out of their lugs.
GOAL! West Ham United 1-4 Chelsea (Caicedo 54)
Fernandez curls the corner in from the left. Hermansen comes out to punch clear confidently … but he doesn’t punch clear confidently, half-catching it only to flap it downwards, into the road of Caicedo, on the right-hand corner of the six-yard box. Caicedo wafts out a leg and instantly returns the ball off the underside of the bar and in. What a fiasco.
53 min: Neto feeds Cucurella down the left. Chelsea are having so much joy down this flank. Cucurella is disappointed to only win a corner, having tried to find Delap in the six-yard box with a low cross. But no matter, because …
52 min: West Ham have hardly come out of the second-half traps flying. The changes making no instant effect. Chelsea still looking comfortable, verging on dominant.
50 min: It should be 4-1 to Chelsea. Fernandez sends Neto into space down the left. Neto reaches the edge of the box and cuts back for Fernandez, who had kept going. He leans back and slices his shot over the bar. Hermansen was out of the picture, so all he had to do was hit the target. Big miss.
49 min: At present, the xG stat for this match is 0.18 goals for West Ham to 1.65 for Chelsea. The actual scoreline flattering the hosts if anything.
47 min: Freddie Potts is making his Premier League debut. The 21-year-old midfielder is the son of Steve Potts, who played 506 matches for the Hammers between 1985 and 2001.
West Ham get the second half underway. They’ve made two changes: Todibo and Fullkrug off, Wilson and Potts on. They’ll go to a back four. “Palmer’s withdrawal has turned out to be Cold comfort for Graham Potter.” Peter Oh, ladies and gentlemen. He’s here all week. Try the pulled pork and chips, with lashings of mayo and BBQ sauce pie, mash, liquor and jellied eel.
Half-time entertainment. It’s not been a particularly productive day for Cole Palmer. Barry Glendenning explains.
HALF TIME: West Ham United 1-3 Chelsea
The whistle goes for the break, and West Ham trudge off glumly to boos. Chelsea head down the tunnel in a much happier frame of mind.
45 min +6: A simple long ball down the middle nearly splits the West Ham defence. Gusto gets in ahead of Aguerd, momentarily, but can’t get the ball under control, and it’s knocked out for a corner. Nothing comes of it, but that was close to a fourth for Chelsea.
45 min +5: Ward-Prowse catches Caicedo on the foot with a late lunge. The ground’s quiet enough to clearly hear Caicedo’s scream of pain. Happily he’s fine to continue. Ward-Prowse escapes censure. Referee Michael Oliver in a laissez-faire mood.
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.
