Wednesday 24 / April / 2024
London: Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino's wait for first victory in charge of the club continues as West Ham beat The Blues 3-1 at the London Stadium on Sunday.
Nayef Aguerd gave West Ham United the lead in the seventh minute, taking advantage of some non-existent Chelsea marking and heading home debutant James Ward Prowse's corner kick in the seventh minute. This was West Ham's first home game since being crowned as UEFA Europa Conference League winners back in May and there was nothing better than this start for them.
The visitors had given West Ham too much space in the penalty area, which caused them to concede a goal, but they soon started to make a comeback of sorts in the match.
Chelsea finally got their equaliser as Carney Chukwuemeka gained the ball possession down the left side of West Ham's area and from an acute angle, he curled home his debut Premier League goal in the 28th minute.
At the end of the first half, the scoreline was 1-1 and both teams had to look out for the winning goal in the second half.
The Blues could have secured the lead just after the break after a foul by Tomas Soucek gave them a penalty. But Enzo Fernandes' spot kick was weak and saved by Alphonse Areola.
Later on in the 53rd minute, West Ham secured a lead with Michail Antonio producing a powerful finish after being assisted by Ward Prowse.
This goal prompted the Chelsea boss to bring Caicedo for his Blues debut, but Aguerd set up for a tense final 15-20 minutes after bringing down Jackson, leaving no choice with the referee but to send him off in the 67th minute.
When Caicedo brought down Emerson late on, the Brazil midfielder Lucas Paqueta hit a match-winning penalty in the 95th minute.
Chelsea is in the 15th position with a draw and a loss and one point, while The Hammers are in the sixth position with a win and draw, a total of four points.
Following the match, West Ham manager David Moyes said as quoted by Sky Sports, "It was a big result when you have three away games and just one at home before the international break."
"Chelsea were really good. They were really good last week against Liverpool too. We were fortunate not to be down at half-time, we stuck at it and the goalkeeper makes a good save from the penalty that allowed us to get to level and see if we could become better in the second half."
"I am hugely impressed by Chelsea and just because they lost today that should not change people's opinion of that. But we defended the box well and they miscued a few, so it could have gone differently. But over the years we've had to be resilient and hard to beat and the players showed that today," he concluded.
On the other side, Chelsea boss Pochettino said, "Teams like us need to get the right balance, we didn't manage a few actions well today and we conceded. But we did create many chances in the first half - that's where we should have won the game. It's difficult to explain as you have possession, create chances and are the better side, but you lose."
"We were frustrated [after the penalty] - we were playing well and did not get the reward. Maybe we started the second half with this belief. Also, the injury to Chukwuemeka changed the shape of the team. We conceded in one action - we need to be stronger there as we knew West Ham defends deep, play on the counter and can be dangerous from set-pieces."
"This is only the beginning. We need to believe in the process. With time to work, we will be strong and competitive," he concluded.
