EPL 2021-22: West Ham United 3-2 Chelsea: 3 factors that stood out in the match

West Ham United beat Chelsea 3-2 in a highly entertaining Premier League match at the London Stadium today. Chelsea are still at the top of the league table with 33 points from 15 matches. However, their loss meant that both Manchester City and Liverpool now have the chance to surpass them.

On the other hand, David Moyes’ West Ham United remain at the 4th position with 27 points from the same number of matches.

Manuel Lanzini, Jarrod Bowen and Arthur Masuaku scored for West Ham United in the 40th, 56th and 87th minutes respectively. Meanwhile, Thiago Silva and Mason Mount scored for the visitors in the 28th and 44th minutes respectively.

West Ham came from behind twice in the match before scoring the winning goal with a few minutes to spare.

On that note, we would like to take a look at the three factors which stood out in today’s match:

#1 Chelsea dominated the first half and broke the deadlock:

Quite unsurprisingly, Chelsea were the dominant side in the first half. They began to put pressure on the West Ham United goal from the very outset. Both teams started with a 3-4-2-1 formation and Chelsea left players like Romelu Lukaku and Christian Pulisic on the bench.

However, that decision did not stop them from taking the attack into the opposition. Chelsea actually had 77% ball possession till the 15th minute of the match and for a considerable amount of time, they had 10 outfield players in the opposition half.

Chelsea had also managed to earn a few corners in the process and their first goal came from one such corner when Thiago Silva headed the ball past Lukasz Fabianski, West Ham United’s goalkeeper. Chelsea kept playing crosses into the West Ham penalty box from wide and Kai Havertz was on the receiving end of some of them.

However, he could not score a goal, and only succeeded in hitting the side-net on one occasion. He also once saw his header being grabbed easily by Fabianski.

#2 West Ham United were gifted a goal, but Chelsea scored again:

Mount scored with a wonderful volley

Just when it looked like Chelsea would easily go on to win the match, West Ham came back into it with a soft goal. West Ham United spent the first half hour of the match inside their own half and made only a few fringe attacks. They became more adventurous after conceding the goal, and Jorginho’s mistake paved the way for the equalizer.

The Italian midfielder could not play a back pass properly to Edouard Mendy and the latter struggled to control the ball as a result. The Chelsea goalie then committed a foul on Bowen while trying to control the ball and West Ham United were awarded a penalty. Lanzini converted from the spot to score his first goal of the season.

However, West Ham United’s joy was short-lived as the visitors scored again. Declan Rice lost the ball to Loftus-Cheek in the Chelsea half and then the ball was played to an advancing Hakim Ziyech. Ziyech then played the ball across to Mount, who had been very active through the inside-right channel.

Ziyech’s cross was met first-time by Mount and the latter’s volley succeeded in finding the net. It was a wonderful goal and Chelsea were again duly ahead in the match.

#3 West Ham United managed to score twice as Chelsea threw in everything in the second half:

Bowen was a stand-out performer in today's match

Chelsea replaced an injured Havertz with Lukaku at the start of the second half, but it was West Ham United who scored. Bowen got the ball on the edge of the Chelsea penalty box and beat Mendy with a stunning left-footer to score the equalizer.

It shook things up and Thomas Tuchel decided to bring in Callum Hudson-Odoi for Ziyech and then Pulisic for Marcos Alonso.

Hudson-Odoi was shifted to the left wing-back’s position and he kept trying to cut inside from the left flank. Loftus-Cheek was also very impressive with distribution in midfield. However, West Ham United kept defending resolutely and shifted to a 4-man defence following Kurt Zouma’s hamstring injury.

Just as the match seemed to be veering towards a draw, West Ham United scored again. Masuaku got the ball on the left flank and beat Mendy through the near post with his swerving left-footed shot.

The Chelsea custodian should have done better and it seemed that he was expecting Masuaku to play a cross into the box. Chelsea desperately tried for an equalizer in the dying minutes of the match, but their efforts were not enough. It was a stunning win for the home side.