West Ham United (0) 0 v 1 (1) Chelsea
43 Werner
Yellows: Balbuena sent off (Red) Christensen, Kante, Mendy, Werner
Played at an empty London Stadium, Saturday 24 April 2021.
The chant of “One nil to the Arsenal” became a familiar one in the Gunners’ all conquering heydays, but will Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea be adopting that song? Their 0-1 win away to West Ham United was their 10th clean sheet in their last 14 matches and 16th in the 21 matches since the German became Manager. The score should have been more with the goal scorer Timo Werner missing at least one more good chance off a rebound from Mason Mount’s second half shot. That is now 11 goals and 9 assists (about £2 million each) for him.
The major incident in this game was the erroneous sending-off of Hammers’ defender Fabian Balbuena who hit Ben Chilwell’s calf on the follow through of a clearance kick. The on-field referee Chris Kavanagh saw no issue but VAR official David Bankes referred the decision back to him. A red card resulted which was the wrong decision in most people’s view. For West Ham United this home defeat meant they are one short of 10 home wins in a season for the first time since 2002, but there is still time. They (5th) and the Blues (4th) have now swapped places in the Premier League (PL).
Chelsea are back in action in the next Premier London Derby (PLDs) when they are at home in west London to near neighbours Fulham on Saturday 1 May 2021. Last played on 2 December 2018 in the 2018-19 season this was a 2-0 win for the Blues. Form suggests a home win banker and more gloom for the Cottagers who are running out of matches. Even if Chelsea’s mid-week trip to Spain has tired their legs their confidence must be sky high with a clear advantage of the away goal in the 1-1 draw there against Real Madrid, another would-be European Super Leaguer, in the official Champions’ League. We shall see.
Until next time, “Keep Safe” and enjoy your football, Andrew at PLDs.