Chelsea 2-1 West Ham
Chelsea goals: Chilwell 76' (a: Silva), Havertz 88' (a: Chilwell)
West Ham goals: Antonio 63'
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Subs: Broja (for Gallagher 60'), Mount (for Pulisic 60'), Havertz (for Kovacic 72'), Chilwell (for Cucurella 72'), Jorginho (for Loftus-Cheek 83')
Starting with the lineup, which I think was a great move on Tuchel's part. Going into the game I wanted either Mount, Havertz, or both benched, and he did exactly that. Of course Fofana got his first start in defence meaning James could finally reclaim that RWB spot and have more freedom in attack.
Seemed to be a 3-5-2 consisting of a Gallagher-Ruben-Kovacic midfield and Pulisic playing more center-forward alongside Sterling. We've had a whole range of formations so far and I've seen people mentioning that might be affecting results - we should just pick a formation and stick to it. I'm hoping with the additions of Auba and Zakaria, 2 players I truly believe makes this team function better than before, we'll find consistent results.
Speaking of results, this game.
I continue to be infuriated with the way we're playing. The consistent issue is midfield, and it showed, because we've now crafted a solid gold defence and it made it's debut this game, but that being said it's going to be easilly exploited if we don't support it. Gallagher struggled a bit this game, I have to say. Looking at the lineup I hoped it would be more 3-4-3 and my wishes to play Gallagher in more of a Mount role would be answered. Instead he kept his spot as a no 6 and had his ups and downs. You can see one moment where he takes too long on the ball, moves backwards with it and is then dispossessed, which leads Tuchel to go nuts on the touchline.
Fofana had a solid debut and I'll give him a few games to bed in a bit; I said this last game but I'm so happy we saw that transfer through, I think it's a perfect fit for the player. Silva has been our best player by far this season, putting in shift after shift in that defense. I was maybe thinking he'd be rested this game ready for the Champions League on Tuesday, but it seems he had enough in the tank.
The issues in defense seem to lie with Mendy, who's getting a lot of the blame for our lack of clean sheets. West Ham's only goal of the game comes from a corner that isn't defended too great, Mendy doesn't show enough physicality and Antonio can score an easy tap-in.
While our momentum dropped as soon as we conceded against Leicester, in this game we seemed to get revved up after conceding the first goal of the game. Ben Chilwell off the bench among other subs proved to be masterful from Tuchel, the left-back nabbing a goal to equalize and then an assist for Havertz to make it 2-1.
Havertz proved a lot of doubters wrong after a string of no goal contributions, and I just hope he can carry that on for the week ahead.
Then there's the controversy. West Ham score late in the last minutes of the game, but the goal is ruled out after a foul on Mendy. As a Chelsea fan, I really believe we've gotten away with one there. The fact we're able to walk away from a poor performance with all 3 points just screams 'take the points and run' which isn't something we can rely on for future games.
The foul was very light, and yes, Mendy maybe does play into it a bit. It adds to a week of very questionable VAR and ref decisions, and we just have to thank our lucky stars it helped us out this game.
Looking ahead to Tuesday our team may change once again. Chilwell has proven he can be prolific off the bench, which could mean a potential start and competition for Cucurella, who seems to have dropped off a bit after some very impressive games. While I'm blaming our midfield woes on injuries for the moment, our attack needs fine-tuning. Of course Auba will bring that focal point as a prem-proven striker, and if he does start I''d be intrigued to see what we do, potentially playing him alongside Sterling as a strike partnership, or moving Sterling to the wing, with maybe Ziyech down the other side? He looked solid against Leicester so I see no reason why he can't carry on.
I don't know if it's too early for Zakaria, but if he is involved I'd love to see him get some minutes - as long as his defensive work rate is solid I'll be happy.
As for Mendy. Tuchel did say he had some injury issue (even though I don't think it was a foul) which could provide an avenue for Kepa to start the CL game. From there, who knows. Kepa might end up keeping his spot for Fulham if he impresses.
I've said before that Kepa has improved since his drop in form at Chelsea. He is a more than capable back-up who has saved us in some rough situations. He has weaknesses, but then so does every player. I'm just not all that convinced with Mendy as of recently; he's not very physical and also doesn't have the best distribution. I think we win the Zagreb game too, so why not take the risk?
Mentality still an issue. If we can play like we did after the West Ham goal, all the time, we should have no issues. I'm sure Tuchel will be trying to bring that across.
The Champions League returns on Tuesday, and it'll be a very fun game to watch. We can build on this win now and go from there.