- April 24, 2022
- Olaoluwa Nwobodo
The Chelsea versus West Ham game helped emphasize the really important things: three points. It was a poor performance but Chelsea did enough to get two clear-cut chances. Chelsea may have won by more than one goal if Jorginho had not missed, who knows? Chelsea cannot keep getting away with poor performances like this for much longer though, so things have to change. How did the players get along?
Goalkeeper: Clean sheet, can’t ask for more
Mendy was very good in this game. He made two saves and ensured a clean sheet. His distribution was superb as well at 75% long ball accuracy. Mendy needed this clean sheet. He has been through a lot of criticism lately, fair criticism, but credit to him he has put his head down and continued to work to improve areas that need improving.
Defenders: Nothing much to do
Chelsea’s defenders turned out to be midfielders in this match. They were tasked with recycling possession as Chelsea dominated the ball for most of the game thanks to the centerbacks. Silva got so much of the ball that he alone accounted for 15% of the team’s total passes completed. All the centerback were alert and made sure that they didn’t let West Ham get a sniff of Chelsea’s goal. Cesar Azpilicueta and Trevoh Chalobah looked shaky in the first 15-20 mins of the match but they eventually stabilized.
Midfielders: Solid, manageable
N’Golo Kante did most things right except decision-making. Jorginho’s performance was on the verge of being remembered with a penalty miss when Pulisic scored Chelsea’s eventual winner. Jorginho was good, his penalty – on the other hand – was not. Ruben Loftus-Cheek was not great at right wingback. Alonso played very well, ultimately assisting Chelsea’s only goal in the match.
Forward: Shocking, abysmal
Mason Mount was the main culprit. It really would be difficult to put into words how bad he was. His decision-making made me want to pull my hair out. Chelsea needed the forwards to get their act together to give the Blues a chance against a resilient and hyper-disciplined West Ham team. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, Chelsea’s front line disappeared during the match. Timo Werner and Kai Havertz were suffering from Mount’s constant nothingness play. This doesn’t exonerate the Germans though as they both had bad games in their own right anyway. The front line was ineffective.
Substitutes: Game-changing substitutes
Lukaku injected some much-needed spark into the game. He did excellently win the penalty by forcing West Ham’s Craig Dawson to panic and foul him. Ziyech tried his best but he couldn’t put his stamp on the game. Pulisic was getting into very good positions even before he scored the winning goal. Neither the goal nor the penalty happens without the substitutions.