Key events
72 min: … and it’s nearly six for Chelsea, with Estevao sent clear down the inside-right channel by James. He overthinks upon entering the box, and can neither get round Diouf nor dink over Hermansen.
71 min: Walker-Peters comes on for Soucek, and is immediately in the thick of the action. Wilson dances through the Chelsea box, left to right, but can’t make enough space for a shot, despite at one point sitting down Tosin. He lays off to Walker-Peters, whose shot from a tight angle on the right is blocked. Much better from West Ham, though the horse has long bolted.
70 min: Chelsea swap out three members of their defence. Cucurella, Chalobah and Gusto make way for Hato, Fofana and James.
68 min: Soucek’s right-wing cross is half-cleared to Potts, who sends a shot towards the top-right corner from the edge of the box. Sanchez tips over spectacularly, but the flag goes up for offside anyway.
67 min: Bowen advances down the right again and cuts back for Soucek, whose first-time shot disappears into Sanchez’s midriff. The last couple of minutes have been a little better for West Ham, though the bar is set so ridiculously low it’s almost subterranean.
66 min: West Ham assistant coach Bruno is booked for telling it as he sees it.
65 min: Bowen jigs down the right and digs out a cross that Wilson heads over. It wasn’t the easiest chance, to be fair.
64 min: Graham Potter stands stock-still on the touchline, staring into the distance/abyss. Deep in an executive box, co-owner David Sullivan is caught on camera deep in thoughts of his own. Just over one-and-a-half matches into the new season, and Graham Potter’s coat hangs on a shoogly peg.
62 min: Delap makes way for Andrey Santos. “Does Palmer get back into the team?” half-jokes Dean Moull.
61 min: Fernandez slices a shot over the bar from the edge of the West Ham box. This could get really ugly for the home side.
60 min: The booing is really loud now. Even more fans make for the exits. One irate punter make a beeline for the pitch, but his preposterous strivings are futile. Another supporter is pictured in the stand, hands on head, smiling wryly. What else can you do? West Ham have fallen apart.
GOAL! West Ham United 1-5 Chelsea (Chalobah 58)
Neto swings the corner in from the right. Hermansen flaps again. As the keeper sprawls, Pedro heads down for Chalobah, who sweeps home from six yards. Easy as that!
57 min: Delap nearly releases Estevao with a cute reverse pass down the inside-right channel. Estevao enters the box but just as he prepares to shoot, Diouf arrives and pokes behind for a corner. From which …
56 min: Graham Potter bites his nails nervously as more fans make towards the out-door, steam pouring out of their lugs.
GOAL! West Ham United 1-4 Chelsea (Caicedo 54)
Fernandez curls the corner in from the left. Hermansen comes out to punch clear confidently … but he doesn’t punch clear confidently, half-catching it only to flap it downwards, into the road of Caicedo, on the right-hand corner of the six-yard box. Caicedo wafts out a leg and instantly returns the ball off the underside of the bar and in. What a fiasco.
53 min: Neto feeds Cucurella down the left. Chelsea are having so much joy down this flank. Cucurella is disappointed to only win a corner, having tried to find Delap in the six-yard box with a low cross. But no matter, because …
52 min: West Ham have hardly come out of the second-half traps flying. The changes making no instant effect. Chelsea still looking comfortable, verging on dominant.
50 min: It should be 4-1 to Chelsea. Fernandez sends Neto into space down the left. Neto reaches the edge of the box and cuts back for Fernandez, who had kept going. He leans back and slices his shot over the bar. Hermansen was out of the picture, so all he had to do was hit the target. Big miss.
49 min: At present, the xG stat for this match is 0.18 goals for West Ham to 1.65 for Chelsea. The actual scoreline flattering the hosts if anything.
47 min: Freddie Potts is making his Premier League debut. The 21-year-old midfielder is the son of Steve Potts, who played 506 matches for the Hammers between 1985 and 2001.
West Ham get the second half underway. They’ve made two changes: Todibo and Fullkrug off, Wilson and Potts on. They’ll go to a back four. “Palmer’s withdrawal has turned out to be Cold comfort for Graham Potter.” Peter Oh, ladies and gentlemen. He’s here all week. Try the pulled pork and chips, with lashings of mayo and BBQ sauce pie, mash, liquor and jellied eel.
Half-time entertainment. It’s not been a particularly productive day for Cole Palmer. Barry Glendenning explains.
HALF TIME: West Ham United 1-3 Chelsea
The whistle goes for the break, and West Ham trudge off glumly to boos. Chelsea head down the tunnel in a much happier frame of mind.
45 min +6: A simple long ball down the middle nearly splits the West Ham defence. Gusto gets in ahead of Aguerd, momentarily, but can’t get the ball under control, and it’s knocked out for a corner. Nothing comes of it, but that was close to a fourth for Chelsea.
45 min +5: Ward-Prowse catches Caicedo on the foot with a late lunge. The ground’s quiet enough to clearly hear Caicedo’s scream of pain. Happily he’s fine to continue. Ward-Prowse escapes censure. Referee Michael Oliver in a laissez-faire mood.
45 min +4: Now it’s Cucurella’s turn to knock the unfortunate Fullkrug to the floor. Again, no foul. Fullkrug allows a pained look to betray his emotions. He’s been on the receiving end during this half all right.
45 min +2: Pedro slips Estevao into space down the right. Estvao goes barrelling along the touchline, but this time Todibo stays in the race and gently ushers him over the touchline. For a second there, West Ham looked exposed once more.
45 min: Graham Potter looks on pensively. A big job coming up at half-time … which is still six additional minutes away.
44 min: Bowen drives at Cucurella down the right and thinks he’s made enough space to shoot. But he hasn’t. His attempted curler towards the bottom left is immediately blocked by his opponent.
43 min: The London Stadium is pretty quiet now. Only the Chelsea fans to be heard. A lot of discontented supporters looking glumly on. West Ham haven’t done a thing since falling two goals behind.
41 min: Estevao hasn’t been perfect, of course. His loose flick set Paqueta off for West Ham’s early goal, and now he makes the same mistake again. But this time Paqueta can’t release Bowen on goal, and leaps around in impotent frustration when the attempted counter-attack breaks down.
39 min: Paqueta races to meet a loose ball on the edge of the Chelsea D, but the bounce isn’t his friend, and he can’t take it down for a shot. So he improvises, spinning around and meeting the high ball with an overhead kick. Not enough pace to trouble Sanchez, but full marks for invention. “Did Cold Palmer warm up too much and turn into gas?” wonders Tomasz Rykała, filing an early contender for Zinger of the Season.
37 min: Bowen slips Wan-Bissaka into space down the right. Fernandez, high on life after his goal, comes across to shoulder-barge his opponent off the ball, which sails out for a goal kick. The home fans don’t like it. Wan-Bissaka’s not particularly thrilled. But it’s another hard-but-fair challenge. The frustration of the home fans is palpable. And audible.
35 min: Some West Ham punters are already heading for the exits. Graham Potter is already the bookies’ favourite to become the next Premier League manager to lose his job … and this isn’t helping matters. The small margins, though, because his team were a couple of inches away from taking a 2-1 lead. But now look.
GOAL! West Ham United 1-3 Chelsea (Fernandez 33)
Cole who? Palmer’s replacement Estevao suddenly turns on the jets, latching onto Delap’s backflick down the right and dribbling into the box at an absurd pace, and with some skill. He draws a couple of defenders before squaring low for Fernandez, who can’t miss from six yards. What a sensational run by Estevao!
31 min: West Ham try to regain some sort of foothold in the match with some possession in the middle of the park. They advance as far as Chelsea’s final third, before being forced to turn tail. The visitors, after a shaky start, look comfortable right now.
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