Chelsea 2-1 West Ham: Lessons learnt by PoL
By Tan Yi Hao
Chelsea got incredibly lucky
It was a tiny miracle in itself that Chelsea were able to come away with anything from this match, let alone all three points. Apart from the fact that the performance by the home side was ill-deserving of any reward, the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) came to Chelsea’s assistance at a critical junction of the match. Having just scored through Kai Havertz in the 88th-minute, Chelsea looked to have turned the game around to secure an undeserved win against the Hammers.
That was, indeed, a cruel outcome for West Ham who had struck the post just moments earlier and reinforced by expected goals (xG) statistics after the match that had Chelsea recording only 0.88 expected goals (xG) as compared to West Ham’s 1.22. Nevertheless, the home crowd went wild and their celebrations thereafter were indicative of the prevailing thought that as far as the game was considered, it was pretty much game, set and match. However, just two minutes after what was seemingly the winner, a loose back pass from James put Jarrod Bowen in on goal. Mendy came out to claim the loose ball but only succeeded at parrying it straight out to substitute Maxwel Cornet who duly rifled the ball into the top right hand corner of the goal to make it 2-2. It was no less than West Ham had deserved, and the dejected look on many of the Chelsea players had made it abundantly clear that even they thought that the goal had been a legitimate one.
However, if Havertz’s earlier goal was deemed to have been somewhat brutal on David Moyes’ side, what followed can only be said to be a thousand times worse. Jarrod Bowen’s boot lightly glancing off Mendy’s shoulder when the Englishman had initially been put through on goal was judged to have been enough contact to result in Cornet’s equaliser being chalked off. It was an incredibly harsh decision and as the full-time whistle blew, Chelsea heaved a collective sigh of relief whilst David Moyes was left stomping his feet at what could have, and in all honesty, should have been.