Chelsea cut the losing streak at home

The competition between the two London teams was pushed to a climax in the last five minutes. Chelsea were awarded a penalty after Romelu Lukaku was dragged down by Craig Dawson. West Ham midfielder received a red card. But on the free kick, Jorginho’s shot in the “flapping” style was caught by Lukasz Fabianski.

However, this missed situation did not dismay the home team. Chelsea still worked hard to attack in the last minutes and their efforts paid off. Marcos Alonso stretched from the edge of the box. Manuel Lanzini and Declan Rice failed to cut the ball, creating the conditions for Pulisic to shoot diagonally to defeat Fabianski.

This goal seemed to make Stamford Bridge explode. Chelsea have lost all of their last three matches at home to Arsenal, Real, Brentford and conceded 11 goals. To the extent that Tuchel had to question the quality of the pitch, causing the defense to constantly make mistakes. Winning West Ham with a close score, but keeping a clean sheet will give Chelsea confidence in the remaining six rounds, and the FA Cup final against Liverpool on May 14.

David Moyes decided to take care of some pillars to prepare for the match against Frankfurt in the first leg of the Europa League semi-final next week. But not so that the match became easy for Chelsea. In the first half, despite 70% possession of the ball, the home team did not have any shots on target.

Chelsea came closest to the goal when N’golo Kante cut his heart off the post from before the penalty area. In the opposite direction, although the Chelsea defense made some mistakes, the absence of Jarrod Bowen or Michail Antonio made West Ham’s counter-attacks lacking in damage. There is a situation where Andriy Yarmolenko stole the ball from Cesar Azpilicueta’s feet, but his cross was too simple to pass Edouard Mendy.

Chelsea increased the pressure in the second half. They hit 20 shots after the break, compared with six in the first 45 minutes. With the exception of Ruben Loftus-Cheek, every home player, including three substitutes, had at least one shot. Kante continued to threaten Fabianski’s goal when his shot hit the foot of a Wets Ham player who changed direction, but the away keeper remained in control.

Fabianski then continued to save defender Trevoh Chalobah’s long shot, and then Timo Werner’s shot from close range. When the Polish goalkeeper gave up, Chelsea’s shots were inaccurate. The most unfortunate for the home team is probably Werner’s finish on the edge of the net, or Mason Mount’s forte of going over the bar.

West Ham were completely underpowered in the second half. But Moyes’ army still showed good organization with 14 successful tackles and 12 times blocking the opponent’s finishing effort. The moment Dawson let Lukaku go, getting him a red card after VAR intervention, was a rare mistake for the visitors. Although Chelsea could not score, playing without people indirectly caused West Ham to make mistakes in the last minutes.

This defeat caused West Ham to miss the opportunity to take sixth place from Man Utd. In front of the “sledgehammer” is the match against Frankfurt and the match against Arsenal next weekend. Chelsea will be a guest at Man Utd in the next round on April 28.

List of competitions

Chelsea: Mendy, Azpilicueta, Silva, Christensen, Loftus-Cheek (Ziyech 76′), Kante, Jorginho, Alonso, Mount, Werner (Pulisic 76′), Havertz (Lukaku 76′).

West Ham: Fabianski, Coufal, Dawson, Cresswell, Johnson, Soucek, Noble (Rice 62′), Masuaku, Fornals, Benrahma (Lanzini 78′), Yarmolenko (Bowen 73′).

Quang Huy