Chelsea vs. West Ham
Venue: Stamford Bridge
Kick off: 4:30PM
Chelsea head into today’s Premier League meeting with fellow Londoners West Ham United desperate to reverse a dismal run of five defeats in their last seven games.
The Blues’ hopes of securing Champions League football are fading fast, with Antonio Conte’s team having fallen eight points behind the top four, and they are up against a Hammers side still fighting for their top-flight future.
Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich would have baulked at the thought of Europa League football at the beginning of the campaign, but last weekend’s 3-1 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur has made that a very real possibility next season.
The Blues loss at home to Spurs has left them firmly in fifth place in the table, eight points behind their London rivals and five ahead of Arsenal directly below them, with seven matches left to play.
Five defeats in the last seven league matches is Chelsea’s worst run since that abysmal spell during the 2015-16 season which cost Jose Mourinho his job.
During that run, they have crashed out of the Champions League at the last-16 stage, beaten over two legs by a much-fancied Barcelona side, but FA Cup glory could be a potential silver lining in an otherwise disappointing season, as the Blues are into the last four of that competition.
Meanwhile, the Hammers’ form is sketchy at best, with that victory over the Saints being only their second in the last nine matches.
David Moyes’s men conceded a whopping 11 goals in the three matches preceding that one, a tally that has contributed to them having the second-worst defence in the division.
Going forward, their haul of 39 goals for an average of 1.22 per match is middling, the 10th-best in the Premier League and identical to what Bournemouth have managed.
Moyes is out of contract at West Ham in the summer, but a positive result against Chelsea will keep them on course to retain their top-flight status, and thus take the Scot a step closer to scoring a new deal.
Chelsea possible XI: Courtois, Azpilicueta, Christensen, Rudiger, Moses, Fabregas, Kante, Alonso, Willian, Morata, Hazard.
West Ham possible XI: Hart, Rice, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Zabaleta, Kouyate, Noble, Masuaku, Antonio, Arnautovic, Joao.