WHUFC vs Chelsea -- July 1st, 2020

Here we go again... more of the same? What is the same? Well, if it's the same as the previous two games and the majority of the season it'll be a nightmare demolition by the boys in blue... if it's the 'other' same it'll be a spirited and unlikely victory against top of the table opposition when we can barely muster a shot on goal against the ne-erdowells and also-rans...

chelsea are flying pretty high these days...

we... are barely managing to stand upright...

"Sebastien Haller, Arthur Masuaku and Angelo Ogbonna are "getting closer" to a return to action, according to West Ham manager David Moyes."
fupp that asshole... why not just admit they're not going to play... who cares how close they are ... they either play or they don't.

MATCH FACTS

Head-to-head

West Ham are vying to complete their first league double over Chelsea since the 2002-03 season.
The Hammers have only lost one of the past five meetings, winning two and drawing two.

West Ham United

West Ham have only won one of their past 11 league matches, drawing two and losing eight.

The Hammers could suffer four consecutive Premier League defeats without scoring for the first time since October 2006.

They could also lose four home Premier League London derbies in a row for the first time.

David Moyes' side have dropped a league-high 22 points from winning positions this season.

Defeat would ensure the Hammers equal their Premier League club record of nine home defeats in a season.

Only Southampton have earned fewer points at home than West Ham's 15 this season.

Moyes' first win as West Ham manager was 1-0 against Chelsea in December 2017.


Chelsea

Chelsea have won five consecutive games in all competitions.
Only Manchester City have scored more away league goals than Chelsea's 31 this season.



so, yeah... it's ugh... all to play for I guess....

Gawd 'elp us

welp, just under 20 minutes gone in the "pre" games...

Norwich are standing up manfully against Arsenal...

Everton have stuck something like 2 in 2 minutes against Leicester

and the Toon are doing us a favor by leading Bournemouth by an away goal to zip...


so, once again, teams around us are doing more to keep West Ham in the Premier League than West Ham actually are...

which means - nothing changes position-wise at the bottom of the table... but a victory against Chelsea today would see us leapfrog Watford and put a three point cushion between us and Bournemouth... I mean, could there be a bigger incentive to actually show up today?

as we approach half time, Arsenal and Newcastle have doubled their leads...

Norwich go close with an excellent free kick...

no news on a team line-up for us...

Teams are out on the pitch... Bubbles ringing round the ground - as fake as our club is these days...

all the other teams who played today did us a huge favor...

team news is interesting... Noble is quoted on the offish as saying some players might be upset about not playing but they have to suck it up... and we see that noble is not only dropped... but dropped from the quad...

Here's the team:

Fabianski, Cresswell, Fornals, Ogbonna, Diop, Rice, Fredericks, Soucek, Antonio, Lanzini, Bowen

Subs: Randolph, Balbuena, Yarmolenko, Anderson, Wilshere, Ajeti, Silva, Lewis, Johnson

So, that's a... 9-1 formation? a 4-5-1?

who knows?

Sir Trev is out there... not out there out there... in the stands watching, with a nice WHUFC face mask...

players take a knee.

Chelsea kick off

comms is claiming Noble has 'jarred his back in training' - so that's the medical terminology for being shite...

Lanzini (noble's replacement) totally misses the ball and lets it go out of play...

Head to Head:

25 -Chelsea wins

13 - West Ham wins

9 - Draws

even a draw gets us above Watford...

again we're too narrow at the back, Chelsea over run us on the wing but only get a corner, which ends in Fabianski's hands.

yup, looks like we're going with the 9-1 formation...

sitting deep, soaking up the pressure... when the ball pops free it goes to antonio who has zero support and so we concede possession back to Chelsea..

typical M*yes tactics... play to lose and hope there's a questionable decision or two to hide behind...

possession is currently 78-22 in favor of... no prizes for guessing correctly...

according to comms - as antonio pulls the ball across the face of the goal and misses a sitter -- since M*yes returned we've only managed an average of 36% possession in all of our games... well below that today, but testament to what ashitty manager he is

holy crap... Chelsea just walk right through us but the final shot curls inches over the bar... that's a huge let off for us...

Antonio totally fails to make himself available for Bowen and when he does, it's too late and he kicks the ball out of touch...

might be a good time as they stop for drinkies to give him a good kick up the Arse....



fupping pointless talk from M*yes... as if he has the slightest fupping clue how to manage a football team...

we give away possession again... we were actually outside the Chelsea box... but now Chelsea have us pegged back just outside our own box...

now we give away a free kick

30 minutes... Bowen is trying... but then gets scraped down his achilles and goes down...

Free kick turns into a corner...

corner becomes a goal... Soucek...

Azpili-whatsisname is trying so much argy bargy in the build up with Soucek and Diop... but in the bundle that follows... Soucek gets it not the goal...

VAR is looking at it...

who knows how it's going to go...

they're claiming offside for Antonio being on the floor as Soucek bundled the ball past him...

and VAR has ruled it as offside... and we concede a free kick....

totally bullshit decision and might cost us the game...

As comms are saying... if the VAR decision takes 3 1/2 minutes, then it's hardly an 'obvious decision'

but there's M*yes 'we were robbed' excuse card...

From the Guardian...

"38 mins
Post update
West Ham 0-0 Chelsea
I give up really trying to work out some of these decisions. What I would say is Michail Antonio was on his back, lying on the floor. He couldn't really be expected to know if he was onside or not. He was collateral damage in that goal.

Oh well, 0-0 it is."


and Diop concedes penalty....