Premier League: East Meets West at the Bridge

Chelsea vs West Ham United

London pride will be at stake, as well as three vital points, in the Premier League clash set to take place at Stamford Bridge on Saturday when Chelsea entertain West Ham United.

The Hammers fans will make their way from the East End in the droves in the hope of spoiling the weekend for their West End rivals and, if they do, you’ll be able to hear them all the way down the Kings Road!

Neither team has started as well as they have in recent seasons, Chelsea were top at this stage of the 2021/22 campaign and they currently sit in tenth place. Meanwhile the Hammers, who have qualified for Europe in consecutive campaigns, are down in 14^th and three points behind their hosts.

Talking Points

Big spending Blues must deliver

Chelsea fans have been used to their owners splashing the cash over the past couple of decades and the new man at the helm is no different, as Todd Boehly has just broken a Premier League record by spending over £270m in one summer transfer window. Following the arrivals of Marc Cucurella for £62m, Raheem Sterling, £50m and Kalidou Koulibaly, £34m, the Blues went a little crazy on deadline day, bringing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang back to London; and then they wrote their biggest cheque of the summer to bring 21 year old centre back Wesley Fofana from Leicester City for the princely sum of £69.5m.

And that amount of spending, I would say, puts Chelsea and their manager under serious pressure.

The latest Premier League 2022 betting odds tell us just how sticky the Blues’ start has been. Chelsea have slipped to fifth favourites to win the title at odds of 34.00 which, unless we see a remarkable loss of form from the league leaders pretty much rules them out in my opinion. The target is to finish in the top four and the fact that rivals Spurs have started strongly and Arsenal are top of the league will make the situation even more difficult to bear for Chelsea fans.

Consecutive away defeats, to Leeds United and Southampton, have made a total mess of Chelsea’s start to the campaign and it will take some recovering. Raheem Sterling is a bright light amidst the gloom, top scoring with three goals, while there has been nothing, in terms of assists or goals from Christian Pulisic, Mason Mount, Kai Havertz or Hakim Ziyech and that is something Tuchel must rectify.

Centre back Kalidou Koulibaly impressed in the first two games then imploded in the third, getting sent off against Leeds, and it will be interesting to see how Tuchel will organise his back line since the arrival of Fofana.

There’s plenty of work to do.

Hammers on the up

After a poor start to the campaign, with three league defeats leaving them bottom of the pile, West Ham have pulled themselves up and are on an unbeaten run of three, in all competitions. A 3-0 win away to Viborg secured a Europe League conference group place and a 1-0 league win away to Aston Villa broke their duck in the league. But a 1-1 draw at home to Tottenham Hotspur was possibly the most pleasing result of all, as it showed that the Hammers can still live with the elite. Tomas Soucek scored a deserved equaliser as West Ham gave Spurs a tough test, winning the shot count by 12 to nine.

Can they continue the upturn in their Premier League 2022 results against Chelsea? Well they can; but they need the stars to be aligned. But while the Blues have been spending freely, the best bit of business Hammers boss David Moyes has done has been to keep star player Declan Rice at the club; and the midfield ace can be the man to test Chelsea’s resolve.

History

There have been a fair few ding dongs between these two London rivals over the years, and Chelsea have come out the better, with 29 wins to 16, since the forming of the Premier League, and there have been nine draws.

Both meetings ended in a home win last term. West Ham edged a five goal thriller at the London Stadium in December before Chelsea exacted their revenge with a 1-0 victory at Stamford Bridge, in April.

The Blues are unbeaten in six games at Stamford Bridge, and I don’t expect that sequence to be broken.

Betting Tip

At 1.50 to win the Blues are under pressure to deliver, while West Ham at 5.99 or the Draw at 3.74 would simply pile more pressure on Tuchel. The Double chance West Ham or Draw is available at a SBOTOP price of 2.38, but I think the Chelsea boss will sting his players into action, and I can see the likes of Mount putting in a big performance in front of their home fans.

 

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