OPINION
West Ham United were never truly at the races as they succumbed to a disappointing 2-0 defeat to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Monday night.
A world class brace for Blues winger Eden Hazard was enough to decide the game in the hosts’ favour, with the Hammers never really recovering from the Belgian’s outstanding opening goal.
Ultimately there were simply too many Hammers players who produced off-colour performances on Monday, leaving manager Manuel Pellegrini with plenty of food for thought.
As usual there is much to be gleaned from the game, and Forever West Ham has rounded up three things that can be learned from West Ham’s defeat to Chelsea.
Noble not at the races
Mark Noble sat out the Hammers’ defeat to Everton last Saturday due to personal reasons, but we was recalled to the starting line up on Monday. His presence, however, failed to have the desired effect.
The West Ham captain was never able to find his groove as he fell victim to a tactical error from Pellegrini in the first half. He barely improved after the break, though, with the conclusion being that this was simply an off night for the 31-year-old.
He remains a vital component of this team – partly because of how useless Pedro Obiang has been in place of him this season – but he will know that he didn’t have his finest game on Monday.
Lanzini anonymous
You don’t want to be too harsh to West Ham playmaker Manuel Lanzini because he is still in the early stages of recovering from a long term injury, but he is nowhere near the player he was last season at the moment.
That was made abundantly clear once again at Stamford Bridge. The Argentine international hardly touched the ball in the first half and simply wasn’t able to influence proceedings at any point during the game.
He was anonymous, a passenger for large periods of the contest. It might be time for Pellegrini to drop him for a few games and give Samir Nasri his chance to impress in the number 10 role.
Pellegrini gets it wrong
Pellegrini seems to be above criticism for some sections of the West Ham support, but even they must concede that the Chilean got his tactics badly wrong on Monday night.
Going with a 4-4-2 away at Chelsea always seemed like a bad idea and so it proved. The Blues had far too much space in central midfield, with Noble and Declan Rice outnumbered and unable to put their stamp on the game.
Pellegrini acknowledged his mistake and brought Robert Snodgrass on at half time, which made a difference, but the damage was done by the Hammers boss’s first half naivety. He can’t afford to get it so badly wrong, especially against teams of Chelsea’s calibre.
