YOU CAN STICK THE BROWN FLAG… OH, YOU ALREADY DID
West Ham 3 Chelsea 2
And so to Chelsea. History suggests an early Saturday start tends to favour the home side in these circumstances. But then we know from Henry Ford that History is Bunk.
Aaron Cresswell is still out after colliding with an upright at the Etihad, so Ben Johnson continues alongside Vladimir Coufal. West Ham start with a bold back three of Diop, Zouma and Dawson, a midfield of four and two behind Antonio at the front. What could possibly go wrong? Quite a lot, it turns out, Thiago Silver putting Chelsea ahead with a deft flicked header on 28 minutes which beats Fabianski more by the bounce than by the accuracy. This is the point in the game when part of your brain starts separating from the action and you begin to juggle outcomes in your mind. What if that remains the score? Would you take that? Because it wouldn’t exactly be unexpected to lose to the team at the top of the table.
But that’s not how we at West Ham think these days. Late goals are always possible for this side. And there’s still an hour to go. Sure enough, twelve minutes later a disastrous back pass from Jorginho leaves Mendy in the lurch with Jarrod Bowen…
and although the keeper looks to have given himself the chance to clear and avert danger, he pulls Bowen to the ground with his challenge. Penalty. So who will take it? Up steps Lanzini. His finish is perfect. Into the inner side netting having sent Mendy the wrong way.
Just four minutes later Mason Mount has restored Chelsea’s lead with a perfect half volley from Whoever’s cross. Barely 180 seconds to enjoy being back on level terms. So it’s half-time and another opportunity to consider the outcome. It is still feeling to me like a defeat, but what do I know? I thought we would be dispatching Wolves and Brighton and we only managed a point from those two games.
Some of the best goals at London Stadium have been scored by West Ham when they’ve been attacking the ‘Trevor Brooking’ end. And they start positively in the second half. The genius of Declan Rice is restored as the captain pushes his team forward in search of a second equaliser. They don’t have to wait long, Bowen steering home Coufal’s pass into the bottom of Mendy’s net. Power and accuracy. What a goal!
A few minutes later Bowen almost scores a second from Antonio’s low cross, but can’t quite reach his well hit pass. This doesn’t seem to be the same game now. Nevertheless, Chelsea hold out for another half an hour until, with injury time looming, Arthur Masuaku hovers over the ball wide on the left and the hits a shot come cross come shot past Mendy. Who expected that? No one. Not even Masuaku. This is up there with Lingard’s individual effort at Wolves last season and Lookman’s injury time Panenka penalty for Fulham.
There are still over six minutes left, but Hammers aren’t going to ruin things now. Like the first BCD game with Chelsea, and Yarmolenko’s finish when Rüdiger didn’t realise that the Ukranian striker was left-footed, this has been won. Utterly delicious. And no one could have predicted this at half time. I thought we’d get this at Wolves, but no, this is West Ham against Chelsea, and three points to the boys from East London.
1 Lucasz Fabiański, 4 Kurt Zouma, 31 Ben Johnson, 5 Vladimir Coufal, 41 Declan Rice (c), 15 Craig Dawson, 23 Issa Diop, 28 Tomas Souček, 10 Manuel Lanzini, 9 Michail Antonio, 20 Jarrod Bowen
Substitutes: 22 Saïd Benrahma, 8 Pablo Fornals, 23 Arthur Masuaku
Goalscorers: Manuel Lanzini (penalty), Jarrod Bowen, Arthur Masuaku
