After a very weak first half and trailing 0-2, Chelsea FC turned up the heat in the second half and celebrated a 3-2 victory against relegation-threatened city rivals West Ham. Coach Liam Rosenior played a big part in this with some strong substitutions.
At the end of a jam-packed January, which saw the club world champions play a total of nine games, Chelsea FC faced another city derby. The home game against West Ham was already the sixth London derby in a row for the Blues at the national level. However, the Blues, who fielded a total of eight fresh players compared to Wednesday’s 3-2 win at SSC Napoli, clearly had major problems against the relegation-threatened Hammers.
Bowen gives West Ham an early lead in bizarre fashion
The offense was struggling to get anything going due to numerous misplaced passes and coordination problems, and even set pieces posed no problems for the league’s second-worst defense (45 goals conceded in 23 games). In fact, the Blues’ back line looked poor and conceded a bizarre 0-1 goal after just seven minutes.
Winger Bowen crossed the ball to striker Taty, who stretched in vain for the ball. However, because keeper Sanchez had also expected the attacker to make contact, he was unable to react and had to watch as Bowen’s cross curled into the goal at the far post.
The goal did not have a wake-up effect on the Blues, who at times seemed uninspired, and instead the visitors scored their second goal before the break. Summerville finished off a textbook counterattack with his fourth goal in four games (36th minute), and the visitors were on the verge of winning their fourth competitive game in a row.
Rosenior brings on the winner
But the game was far from over at the half-time whistle, which Chelsea fans greeted with loud boos. CFC coach Liam Rosenior, who had already had to substitute the injured Gittens after 26 minutes, responded to the poor performance with a triple substitution – and was spot on.
Fofana, who came on for Badiashile, chipped the ball to Joao Pedro, who had also come on at half-time, and he headed home to reduce the deficit (57′). Thirteen minutes later, the third substitute, Cucurella, equalized with a flying header (70′).
By this point, Chelsea were completely dominant, with West Ham spending almost all of their time in their own half and fighting with all their might to prevent a third Chelsea goal. But it came in stoppage time, and once again a substitute was involved:
Joao Pedro laid the ball back from the byline to Enzo Fernandez, who beat Areola in the West Ham goal for the third time with a first-time shot (90+2). It was the final act in a game of two very different halves, which ended with a scuffle resulting in two yellow cards and a red card for Todibo (90+11).
The Blues now face their next London derby on Tuesday evening (9 p.m.) at Arsenal, with the Gunners hosting the League Cup semi-final. The Hammers, on the other hand, have until Saturday to recover from the late blow. Then they face a relegation battle against second-bottom Burnley.
