West Ham slipped to a 2-1 defeat to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Monday night, with a goal for Jarrod Bowen on his return from injury for the Hammers.
The visitors took the lead just before half-time when Bowen pounced onto a short back pass from Levi Colwill before finishing it excellently into the bottom left.
Pedro Neto scored Chelsea’s equaliser in the 64th minute in what was a somewhat scrappy goal from close range despite West Ham’s best efforts to get bodies in the way.
Chelsea had a stroke of luck shortly after, when Cole Palmer appeared to whip in a low cross from the edge of the box which was blocked by Aaron Wan-Bissaka. Unfortunately for West Ham, the deflection flew over the head of Alphonse Areola and into the back of the net, giving Chelsea their winner.
Hammers show heart
West Ham fans will be pleased with what they saw from their side despite losing the game.
The Hammers kept Chelsea very quiet for large parts of the game and limited the home side to few clear-cut opportunities, and when Bowen opened the scoring, there won’t have been many saying it was undeserved.
Chelsea expectedly saw a lot of the ball in the second half against a West Ham team with once again very little outlets in the final third, but the Hammers defended well.
Controversy surrounded Chelsea’s equaliser when Colwill appeared to clearly foul Bowen off the ball in their own half before going up at the other end and levelling things up through Neto.
After this, it felt all momentum was with Chelsea, and a deflected goal 10 minutes later was the difference between the sides.
In a frustrating night for the Hammers who will feel hard done by with the equaliser and will no doubt feel it could have been a different outcome with a fully fit side, there was still a lot of positives to take from the game.
Against a team that dominate possession in the majority of their games, it’s no surprise Chelsea had more of the possession in the game, particularly at home.
This isn’t to say West Ham weren’t a threat however, with the Hammers having 14 shots in the game and five of those on target, which was more than Chelsea.
Graham Potter hasn’t had much options since joining in terms of team selection, and this was once more the case in Monday night’s game, seeing the likes of Lucas Paqueta, Crysencio Sumerville, Niklas Fullkrug, Michail Antonio, Edson Alvarez and Jean-Clair Todibo all sidelined through injury.
For West Ham to still put in a battling performance which could’ve quite easily swung their way shows the progression the side is making under Potter, and will excite West Ham fans to see what the boss is capable of when he has a fully fit squad.