Match Preview - West Ham vs Chelsea
Chelsea travel to Upton Park to face off against West Ham this weekend. After a good start to their premier league campaign, both teams would be looking for a win as they have had a miserable run of results over the past one month. With Chelsea seemingly under more pressure, as they enjoyed being league leaders for the first couple months and now they are 7 points adrift of leaders Manchester United and 6 behind Manchester City.
West Ham go into this match after 2 straight away defeats against Tottenham and Manchester United, while Chelsea are looking for their first win in the league since 20th October as they have lost 2 and drawn 4 games since then.
Torres has now failed to score for over 10 hours in the league but as Sturridge still a doubt for this one, Benitez would have no other option but to have faith in the Spaniard. Chelsea have had two goal less draws since the appointment of Benitez, and the team has just scored 1 goal in their last 4 games in all competitions. So, it’s definitely a cause of concern for the manager to try and get the team back to scoring and winning ways.
West Ham has managed to keep a clean sheet in 3 out of their seven games played at Upton Park having conceded only 6 goals in the 7 games played at home. And they even managed a goal less draw against reigning English Champions Manchester City this season. Only four teams including Chelsea have conceded less goals than West Ham in the league this season, although scoring goals has also been a problem for Sam Allardyce’s side having scored only 16 goals in the first 13 games.
Recent Form:
West Ham – LLDWD
Chelsea – DDLLD
Head to Head:
Apr 23, 2011 Chelsea 3 – West Ham 0
Sep 11, 2010 West Ham 1 – Chelsea 3
Mar 13, 2010 Chelsea 4 – West Ham 1
Dec 20, 2009 West Ham 1 – Chelsea 1
Apr 25, 2009 West Ham 0 – Chelsea 1
Based on past record, Chelsea seem to have an edge over the east London side having won the last 3 games in their visit to Upton Park. Although it would be anything but easy for Chelsea to get all the 3 points against the Hammers tomorrow in what seems to be an exciting derby to watch.
Predicted Line Ups:
West Ham United – Jussi Jaaskelainen; Winston Reid, James Tomkins, James Collins, Guy Demel; Kevin Nolan, Mark Noble, Matthew Jarvis, Mohamed Diame, Joey O’Brien; Andy Carroll.
Chelsea – Petr Cech; Cesar Azpilicueta, Gary Cahill, Branislav Ivanovic, Ashley Cole; Ramires, John Obi Mikel; Oscar, Juan Mata, Eden Hazard; Fernando Torres.
Prediction:
West Ham 1-2 Chelsea.