Chelsea ease past woeful West Ham

Jussi Jaaskelainenfouls Oscar in the penalty area

Frank Lampard returned to his old stomping ground to put two goals past West Ham as Chelsea emerged 3-0 victors at Upton Park. Dragging his former club further into the relegation mire Lampard scored either side of a strike from Oscar, setting Chelsea on their way from the spot after Guy Demel’s appalling backpass let in Oscar before adding a third late on.

Key Stats:

Despite the margin of victory, Chelsea didn’t dominate possession as they may have been expected to. Jose Mourinho’s side edged possession with 52% compared to West Ham’s 48%. They used this possession far better than their hosts, converting it into 20 shots on goal whereas the home side only managed eight.

Performance Score:

West Ham were – according to our Performance Score – pretty rubbish throughout. The performance score of 0 that they entered the pitch with proved to be the highest they would achieve all evening, as Chelsea coasted to victory against their London rivals.

Man Of The Match:

Opening the scoring with a penalty after Oscar had been fouled, Lampard also netted Chelsea’s third to seal the result. After some indifferent performances in recent weeks, Lampard answered his critics in style at his old club. Lampard took seven attempts on goal over the course of the game, only one fewer than the combined efforts of the West Ham team and three more on target efforts than the Hammers side. Lampard also made three key passes, and contributed five clearances at the other end.

Key Observations:

Sorry Hammers fans, but the main observation from watching this game is that West Ham are really not very good at the moment. Sam Allardyce drew criticism for not starting a striker, but seeing the substitute display of Modibo Maiga you can see why he didn’t, and the absence of Andy Carroll is threatening to drag the east London outfit into a relegation scrap.

The Hammers failed to get a shot on target until added time, despite being at home, and never looked like replying once Frank Lampard had given Chelsea the lead. Even more worryingly they only managed eight shots in total, with four of those off target and three blocked.

Maiga was responsible for three of these shots, with one particularly poor miss from deep inside the penalty area. He scored a performance score of minus 19, and was a peripheral figure. He only made six passes in the 51 minutes he was on the pitch- a total that as well as being tiny is an accuracy of just 46%.

Lacking a confident striker, Allardyce is facing a dilemma in his team selection. Whilst his striker less formation has worked – notably at a Tottenham side lacking in goalscoring form themselves – he doesn’t have the midfield riches to consistently pull it off. The side is built around pace and directness to a lone striker from wide areas, and cannot keep relying on the young talent of Ravel Morrison.

West Ham’s most likely method of scoring against Chelsea was crosses into the box – another factor that shows their reliance on a Carroll-like striker. They hit 25 crosses into the Chelsea box, but only found a teammate with four of them.

Furthermore, Chelsea’s Oscar won an impressive six of his seven tackles today, no player for either side won more tackles than him showing how effective he was off the ball too.

Chelsea navigated a tricky fixture – at a ground that they lost at last season – with ease, and didn’t need to get out of first gear themselves. It was hardly a vintage display -52% possession is hardly a domination – and the Blues were helped out by West Ham’s poor defending. However they always looked comfortable and ensured that they remain four points behind league leaders Arsenal.