Chelsea: Three key clashes for a West Ham Christmas Eve

2. Chelsea minus Hakim Ziyech versus a wide yet packed defense

Unless Frank Lampard has a Christmas miracle up his sleeve, Hakim Ziyech will not be fit in time for West Ham. Chelsea will likely run into similar issues that they did against Everton and Wolves. Both sides looked to defend in a wide shape that was still packed because of the number of players along the back line. With Ziyech, the Blues might have had the ingenuity to break through. Without him, they kept getting trapped out wide where the only idea was to cross it in to the completely overwhelmed Olivier Giroud.

There are two solutions to this that hopefully the Blues have worked on in the last six days. Option one is to create the space. If the opponent has packed it in, the team has to have player movements to create spaces and exploit them once they are created. It isn’t good enough to just force them back and then try to find the perfect pass. The perfect receiver also needs to be found and that requires movement.

Option two is to play it backwards until West Ham is drawn out. That will leave pockets of space to exploit. This was another issue against Everton and Wolves. Even when the Blues had backed up, Olivier Giroud offered no outlet to get in behind.

This is not really a knock to Giroud, it is simply a fact that for all his goals, he has not improved the team as a whole. Timo Werner up top fails to occupy centerbacks enough to make it viable without a player willing to fill that space. That means Tammy Abraham up top is pretty much the only answer. Chelsea has to stretch West Ham in one way or another, and the same team as the last two matches simply cannot do it.