A thrilling London derby turned once again into a story of an impressive Chelsea comeback as the Blues recorded an incredible second-half fightback against West Ham United by 3-2, becoming the first Premier League team in their history to overturn a two-goal half-time deficit and win a match.
Just off a midweek win over Napoli, the Chelsea head coach was at it again at the West Ham podium, this time making seven changes to his starting line-up. At first, the gamble took a wrong turn as the Hammers totally dominated the first few minutes. The visitors got off the mark with a goal before 30 minutes as Jarrod Bowen’s wicked cross from the right went through everyone and settled neatly inside the far post for his fourth goal in the early stages of the season.
West Ham kept exploiting the left side of Chelsea and in the 36th minute got their second goal. Bowen and Aaron Wan-Bissaka gave a masterly display of their skills, the latter cutting the ball back for Crysencio Summerville, who netted his fourth goal in as many games.
As the half-time whistle went off, boos were heard, which led to a triple change by Rosenior, the impact of which was instantaneous as Wesley Fofana’s whipped cross found the head of João Pedro, who headed the ball down and thus the score was reduced, which once again showed the momentum of the match shifted totally into Chelsea’s favor. Chelsea applied more pressure and got rewarded as Marc Cucurella fired the ball in after Malo Gusto’s header rebounded off the bar.
Chelsea completed the comeback at stoppage time when Enzo Fernández calmly finished Pedro’s pass to earn the full three points. The win sees Chelsea move into the top four, while the Hammers have now lost seven of their last eight London derbies.
