Chelsea piled on the early season distress for West Ham and its under-fire supervisor Graham Potter by handing out a 5-1 thrashing within the Premier League, all without injured star Cole Palmer.
Palmer pulled out of the workforce on the final minute on Friday after getting harm within the warmup, earlier than Chelsea went a objective down within the sixth minute on the Olympic Stadium after a long-range piledriver from Lucas Paqueta.
It went rapidly downhill from there for West Ham, which misplaced at promoted Sunderland 3-0 final weekend within the opening spherical and was crushed much more handsomely per week later.
Chelsea had 5 completely different scorers — in Joao Pedro, Pedro Neto, Enzo Fernandez, Moises Caicedo and Trevoh Chalobah. Three of the targets got here at corners, the place West Ham’s marking was non-existent.
After Caicedo poked within the fourth objective within the 54th minute after West Ham goalkeeper Mads Hermansen flapped at an in-swinging nook, some dwelling followers left the stadium.
A trickle of departing supporters become a flood from the 58th when Chalaboh hooked dwelling a shot from shut vary for one more objective from a nook.
Potter appeared dejected on the sideline, along with his place wanting growing unsure after a poor finish to final season by West Ham when the workforce completed 14th within the 20-team league.
There had been boos at halftime and fulltime for West Ham and Potter, who coached Chelsea for seven months in the course of the 2022-23 season earlier than getting fired.
Estevao shines
Replacing Palmer within the Chelsea workforce was Estevao, a extremely rated 18-year-old Brazilian winger who was making his full debut after approaching instead within the 0-0 draw in opposition to Crystal Palace final weekend.
West Ham United’s Maximilian Kilman tries to sort out Chelsea’s Estevao
| Photo Credit:
Action Images through Reuters
The teenager was wonderful, continually getting in behind West Ham’s protection and getting an help when he crossed for Enzo to faucet in from two meters out within the thirty fourth minute.
By that point, Pedro nodded within the equalizer from shut vary within the fifteenth after Marc Cucurella glanced on a nook to the close to submit. Pedro then crossed for Neto to fit dwelling within the twenty third.
Estevao, who performed for Palmeiras on the Club World Cup over the summer season, came to visit from Brazil with a powerful repute and he backed it up in opposition to West Ham.
Paqueta bounces again
Paqueta is getting his profession again on track after being cleared of spot-fixing fees final month.
He has scored West Ham’s first of the season for 2 campaigns operating now and this one was a magnificence, the Brazil midfielder accumulating the ball simply inside Chelsea’s half, advancing ahead to about 25 meters out and smashing a shot that swerved previous goalkeeper Robert Sanchez.
