Hammers Come Back Twice to Burst Blues’ Bubble
I hope everyone is safe and well.
Wins don’t come better that this and the end of match celebrations reverberated in and around Westfield until the small hours with fans singing ‘West Ham are massive wherever we go’ punctuated with cries of ‘Irons!’ ‘Irons’ and ‘Stick your blue flag …..’ Well, you know how that one goes eh?
There was definitely a party atmosphere to get everyone into the early Christmas spirit, despite a disappointing set of recent results that saw us hold on for a draw against the Seagulls only a few days before. Was our good form about to fade into the busy festive schedule, or could we turn it around against Chelsea to pick ourselves up again?
Masuaku’s misdirected pass rounded off an excellent team display that saw us come back twice from being one goal down and sent those in the stand into raptures of song and applause as we saw out the final minutes of a competitive contest, albeit scattered with some more questionable refereeing.
“I said to him I thought it was a great cross,” West Ham manager David Moyes joked of the defender’s first Premier League goal.
“It was very fortunate but in football you need a bit of fortune sometimes. In the last few games we have lost it a little bit, but today we got it back.” Tell us about it! But this was not a win born out of luck, rather through a solid team performance that showed why we are 4th in the league.
We mustn’t take anything away from the players, with Bowen taking away a well deserved man of the match award that rewarded his effort throughout the match and especially his excellently taken goal.
Thiago Silva nudged the visitors in front with a headed goal from Jason Mounts’s corner, but Mendy handed the Hammers a gift to get back into the game, the result of some excellent pressure from Bowen in the penalty area giving Lanzini the chance to bring us back on level terms.
But Mount was to have a hand in the Blues second goal with a volley off Hakim Ziyech’s cross just before half time to hand the visitors a key advantage going into the break. But we are not ones for giving up the fight and Bowen’s wonderful low strike just outside the area brought us back into the game on 56th minute and we then looked the more likely team to grab all 3 points.
Moyes got the tactics right with Craig Dawson, Moussa Diop and Kurt Zouma operating as a back three that soaked up Chelsea pressure allowing us to strike on the counter. This performance and result was just the tonic we needed after a poor run of results since stunning Liverpool at the beginning of November.
Hope you enjoy the photos from the match.
Be safe everyone
Dawud
From the Stands 