It is rare that a team understands Chelsea so well. David Moyes, vastly underrated in this league for several reasons, got almost everything right. Whatever planning they did prematch prepared West Ham perfectly to not only survive against Chelsea, but to exploit them. The Blues were read like a book.
First of all, West Ham won’t care a bit about possession stats. Possession stats are a pretty pointless statistic when a team does nothing with it. A team can be just as much in control of a match with 20% of the ball as 80%. It’s all about how it is used. Chelsea, though dominate on the ball, were never able to break the Hammers down effectively. West Ham, when they got chances, took them with a clinical approach Chelsea could only dream of at the moment.
Statistics are informative, but West Ham’s result was a clear victory of video analytics. Whoever in David Moyes’ staff picked out the weaknesses of Chelsea’s approach deserves a raise.
The main issue was Chelsea, when pressed in midfield, would almost always pass backwards to escape the pressure and open up more vertical space for the second pass. It was simply a matter of leaving a player higher up, ready to press Edouard Mendy or whoever when Jorginho, Andreas Christensen, or Antonio Rudiger made a hospital pass to relieve themselves.
That was more or less how the penalty happened. Yes, Jorginho should have checked who was around when he passed back and that isn’t a new issue for him. Yes, Mendy should have just booted it. But all that comes down to West Ham knowing what Chelsea was going to do before they did it.
The third goal came about from a different weakness. As the match continued at 2-2, Thomas Tuchel began to gamble for the victory. That’s the right call as it is better to go for it and try to earn two more points than to settle for the one. But that just opened up West Ham’s spaces in behind. Antonio Rudiger was getting so far advanced that only Callum Hudson-Odoi would have a chance to slow play on that flank. West Ham tried it enough times until they eventually got the winner.
It doesn’t help that each goal shook Chelsea more and more. Mendy became noticeably panicky after the penalty. Christensen and Rudiger became worse and worse. Thiago Silva was solid enough, but even he made an early mistake that was uncharacteristic of him.
There are largely two issues that should be looked at from Chelsea’s side of things. The first is the fact that the goals came from a Silva free header and Mason Mount on a fantastic volley. Other than that, the Blues created little against West Ham’s defense. The second issue is whatever defensive solidarity 3-4-3 has provided thus far was turned into a weakness the more desperate the Blues got. If three at the back cannot guarantee the solidarity that it once did, it quickly loses its usefulness, especially with the goals being difficult to come by.
And those two issues combine and comeback around to a single issue: West Ham knew what Chelsea was going to do. A few years ago, Antonio Conte’s 3-4-3 went through a similar spell. While it initially caught opponents off guard, eventually the opposition figured it out and crippled it. Conte was too slow to change and it cost the Blues top four that season.
It is up to Thomas Tuchel whether or not he reads what happened and makes adjustments. 3-4-3 can still work, but the formation that won the Champions League was turned against Chelsea today. David Moyes was the first, but he won’t be the last unless adjustments are made.