Chelsea vs WHUFC -- Monday, April 8th, 2019

I'm working tomorrow, so I might not see the game and I won't get the chance to pontificate upon events....

so here's a little pre-match thoughts....

Thanks to our hopelessly shiny performances of late... the rest of the league decided to stop giving us chances and take theirs...
so even a win would lift us from the doldrums of 11th place all the way yp to the lofty heights of... umm... 11th place.

yup... every week for the past month we've had the opportunity to rise up to 7th place... to be the 'best of the rest' as people who can't and won't win anything like to strive for... but now????

No chance.

Even holding onto 11th might be beyond us the way we're deciding not to compete.

So who has the manager tasked with the task at hand tomorrow????

Well, the Guardian has us starting with:

Hernandez & Arnautovic

Anderson, Rice, Noble, Snodgrass

Cresswell, Ogbonna, Diop, Zabaleta

Fabianski

with subs from Adrián, Trott, Balbuena, Johnson, Masuaku, Fredericks, Obiang, Coventry, Snodgrass, Nasri, Diangana, Pérez, Holland, Silva

Doubtful Felipe Anderson (ankle), Fredericks (knock), Nasri (calf)

Injured Reid (knee), Wilshere (ankle, both 13 Apr), Sánchez (knee, 20 Apr), Carroll (ankle, unknown), Yarmolenko (achilles, both unknown)

Suspended None

Discipline Y52 R1

Form WLWLWL

Leading scorer Felipe Anderson 8


Of course it's typical to show Anderson in both the striating XI and also the doubtful from injury list... the BBC are saying Anderson will make a start.
Just which Anderson shows up will be a big determining factor in this game - as it usually is. If he fails to show we'll struggle. If he shows up, we might do okay... but then we've not really had to deal with a post-injury Anderson.


And how do things stack-up stat-wise???

Head-to-head

Chelsea are unbeaten in 12 home league meetings since a 2-3 loss in September 2002 (W8, D4).

However, West Ham could go four Premier League matches without defeat in this fixture for the first time in 19 years.
Chelsea

Chelsea can win three consecutive Premier League games for the first time since winning their opening five matches of the campaign.
They have lost just once at Stamford Bridge (W10, D5), a 1-0 defeat by Leicester on 22 December.
Chelsea have lost three home Premier League London derbies over the past four seasons (W9, D4) - as many as they had in the previous 11 campaigns (W34, D13).
They have not been defeated at home in the Premier League on a Monday since December 1994, winning 11 and drawing three since then.
The Blues have the division's best home defensive record this season, conceding 10 goals.
Olivier Giroud has had a hand in nine goals in 11 Premier League games against West Ham, scoring six and assisting three - his best return against any side.
Eden Hazard has registered a league-high 12 assists in this campaign, a career-best return.


West Ham are winless in six league away matches, losing five, since a 2-1 victory at Southampton on 27 December.
The Hammers have kept just two clean sheets on the road in 15 league fixtures.
West Ham have won four of their last five London derbies in the Premier League, drawing the other.
They are unbeaten in 17 Premier League games in which they scored since a 3-1 loss at Arsenal in August (W12, D5).
Nine of their last 11 Premier League goals have been scored from a set-piece.
Javier Hernandez could become just the fifth Premier League player to score in five successive away games against the same team.

So... that make sense? See a pattern?

Nope, me either.

We're so shit these days we could get stuffed by double digits and no one would be the least bit surprised...
But then we're West Ham... we could easily put on a display and stuff the Blues... because... we'll, they're Chelsea.

Whatever happens, it might not be for the faint of heart.

the evening standard is predicting much the same line-up, except with Lanzini in for Snoddy:

West Ham XI: Fabianski; Zabaleta, Balbuena, Ogbonna, Cresswell; Noble, Lanzini, Rice; Antonio, Arnautovic, Anderson


still too early for anything on the Offish...

"It's 17 years since West Ham won a league game at Stamford Bridge but they are much improved this campaign, already matching their points total from last May with six games to spare."

it's stats like this that do my head in...

if it were a team playing against us, that good old '17 years' note would almost guarantee us handing over the points on a silver platter... it's a shame other teams aren't quite a generous as we are.

On the points, err point... it makes you wonder if that's the only thing certain people take into account and so overlook things like the absolutely gutless dire performances we've been putting in recently and just think to themselves... 'well, we're doing better than last year'

well apparently it was a bit of a shitshow... here's how the Guardian saw things...


Let's start with how the team actually lined up:

West Ham shake things up after last week’s dismal showing against Everton. Ryan Fredericks replaces Pablo Zabaleta at right-back, Fabian Balbuena replaces the struggling Issa Diop in central defence, Mark Noble replaces Pedro Obiang, Felipe Anderson replaces Robert Snodgrass and Javier Hernandez, in for Lucas Perez, partners Marko Arnautovic up front.

okay... my thoughts...

Fredericks to replace Zabaleta... not a problem for me. Zabaleta has been an accident prone nightmare... fredericks might not be the finished article but he needs games.

The 'struggling' Diop? Ogbonna's been the nightmare at the back... Diop's actually been pretty solid (in the middle of a shitty defense) but okay... take out the better of the two and bring in a new face...

Noble on for anyone... not in my book. Obiang gets a lot of stick for being crap... but he's not been the worst player we've had... but he and Noble don't play the same game so they make a weird rotating pair.

Anderson for Snoddy... if he's gonna play well then Anderson all day long... but when does Anderson play well (for more than 5 minutes?) If you want general consistency... you'd have to go for Snody... so of course... take out Snoddy and bring in Anderson.

Let's see how that all goes... onto the game itself...

2mins: West Ham make off with the ball. They’ll have to make sure not give the electrifying youngster any room to isolate Cresswell.

9 min: West Ham appear to have lined up with Arnautovic on the right and Hernandez on his own up front. They’re working hard out of possession and could prove hard to break down for Chelsea, who haven’t exactly flourished when confronted by deep and organised defences this season.

11 min: Hazard plays a sharp one-two with Higuain on the right and bursts beyond West Ham’s creaking back four. Ogbonna, panicky and exposed, hauls the surging Belgian down 25 yards out. He’s booked.

21 min: Chelsea probe down the right. Azpilicueta slips a pass in to Kante, who returns the favour with a clever flick back to the Spaniard. All of a sudden West Ham are in bother.

and then they scored... This is stupendous from Eden Hazard! He hadn’t done much, but this is absurd. He picks up possession 35 yards from goal and not much seems to be on. So he just decides to go it alone. He dances between Declan Rice and Mark Noble, who isn’t close enough to make a challenge, and West Ham aren’t quick enough to react. Brilliant footwork sees Hazard zigzag between Balbuena and Ogbonna on the edge of the area and that leaves him one-on-one with Fabianski. The question now is if he can finish - and he answers it emphatically swiping a low left-footed finish to Fabianski’s left just as Fredericks storms in too late with a desperate tackle. That is a stunning goal, one of the best this season.

26 min: West Ham, clinging on, survive.

28 min: Not that I want to search for the negatives, but Manuel Pellegrini might not be impressed with the way Eden Hazard was able to waltz through the middle of West Ham. He’ll be unimpressed with slack pressure from Mark Noble and the inability of his central defenders to challenge Hazard.

33 min: It’s all Chelsea. West Ham are offering nothing.

39 min: The more I see that Hazard goal, the more I cringe at that West Ham defending. Ogbonna looked like he was dipping his toe in a hot bath

41 min: The winger runs at Ogbonna, who’s having a shocker. West Ham will be delighted if they’re only one down at the break. They’ve been a joke since going behind. In fact, they’ve been pretty irrelevant throughout.

43 min: Nobody’s marking Higuain. Why bother? He’s only one of the best strikers in Europe. Chelsea should have put this to bed by now.

Half-time: West Ham have been nonsense and will be in danger of a thrashing if they don’t improve in the second half.

46 min: Chelsea get the second half underway. West Ham have made a change, Robert Snodgrass replacing the wretched Javier Hernandez, a substitution that doubles as a clear admission by Manuel Pellegrini that he got his tactics wrong again.

48 min: Chelsea just need that second goal. They don’t want to let West Ham hang in there. As bad as the visitors have been, they do have the players to create something and take a chance.

51 min: West Ham are going to have an attack at some point, right?

53 min: West Ham failing to exert enough pressure on the ball,

anyway... after about an hour we stepped things up a bit apparently... but what does it matter... even with a bunch of subs we couldn't score and conceded another on 90 minutes.






Hopefully next week will be better...

Disappointing but not unexpected.

Can't see where we're going to get another point.

Charlie Ham wrote:Disappointing but not unexpected.

Can't see where we're going to get another point.

speeding home from the ground?