180 million attack cannot score more than one goal: Chelsea drew against West Ham

Five games, only one win and only three goals scored. Chelsea have spent an enormous amount of money in the last two transfer windows, they forked out over 180 million for forwards (Sterling, Mudryk, Madueke, Aubameyang, Fofana, Felix) but they still cannot score. After goalless draws with Liverpool and Fulham, and one goals scored in loss to Fulham and a narrow win over Crystal Palace, the Blues managed only one against their old foes and are still winless: West Ham – Chelsea 1-1. Graham Potter fielded out a new look attack which generally played well, and showed how dangerous they can be, but in the end, more than one goal was needed to defend West Ham, who played well and looked like they are slowly coming out of their result crisis.

Joao Felix started the match after a three-game suspension and was a force, especially in the first half. The Portuguese scored a goal which was nullified due to a two-inch offside but later scored the only goal for the Blues in the this match. He was a constant threat for the visitors and should have scored another one. Chelsea was constantly pressing the West Ham back three and ended up scoring once and being ruled offside for two more goals. On the other side, West Ham also had one goal disallowed due to offside after a VAR check, but was lucky not to be given a penalty near the end. Soucek stopped the ball with his hand, but amazingly the VAR room didn't intervene.

Chelsea started strong from the first minute and their first big breakthrough was when they injured the only player from the home side who is good with the ball – Lucas Paqueta. The Brazilian fell on the ground after a duel and injured his shoulder. He managed to come back shortly, but couple of hits here and there from Chelsea players were enough to exclude him from the squad in the 14th minute. The Blues were quick and decisive and dangerous from the flanks. Noni Madueke and Mykhailo Mudryk showed their lightning quick pace and just bombarded the West Ham penalty area.

Joao Felix was a constant menace for West Ham center backs, but his first goal was offside. The Portuguese was on the right spot for the second goal, which turned out to be the only one scored in this game for Chelsea. Havertz scored the second offside goal for the visitors, before their former player Emerson Palmieri scored the equalizer.

Unlike the first half, in which Chelsea looked like they are gonna score in matter of minutes, the second half was a much duller affair. Both clubs were not playing so fast and with power and chances were hard to come by. In fact, the Blues had their first shot on goal in the 75th minute, while West Ham scored a potential winner in the 83rd goal. And Soucek was the main actor of the game in the last 10 minutes. His goal was ruled due to an offside and minutes later he stopped the ball with his hand, but got away with it, since VAR didn’t stop the match and award a penalty. This will be a matter of future discussions for sure.

PREMIER LEAGUE

Saturday

West Ham - Chelsea 1-1 (1-1)

/Emerson 28 - Felix 16/

18.00: (1.51) Arsenal (4.50) Brentford (7.75)

18.00: (3.80) Crystal Palace (3.50) Brighton (2.14)

18.00: (1.99) Fulham (3.50) Nott.Forest (4.40)

18.00: (3.35) Leicester (3.50) Tottenham (2.30)

18.00: (2.95) Southampton (3.00) Wolverhampton (2.65)

20.30: (6.75) Bournemouth (3.90) Newcastle (1.63)

Sunday

17.00: (4.20) Leeds (3.60) Man.Utd. (1.99)

19.30: (1.28) Man.City (6.75) Aston Villa (13.0)

Monday

23.00: (1.61) Liverpool (4.20) Everton (6.50)

***odds are subject to change