So it’s a first Chelsea start for Jadon Sancho. He did well coming off the bench at Bournemouth so Enzo Maresca feels it’s worth putting the winger in from the start.
Enzo Fernandez returns in midfield while Tosin gets a first top-flight start in the Chelsea rearguard. Renato Veiga, Pedro Neto and Axel Disasi all drop to the bench.
For West Ham, there’s also a debut for a wideman as new signing Crysenscio Summerville gets the nod. Lucas Paqueta returns as expected, with Tomas Soucek and Michail Antonio the two to make way from the XI who started in the 1-1 draw at Fulham last week.
West Ham: Areola, Wan-Bissaka, Mavropanos, Kilman, Emerson, Alvarez, Rodriguez, Paqueta, Summerville, Bowen, Kudus.
Subs: Fabianski, Cresswell, Soler, Coufal, Antonio, Ings, Todibo, Soucek, Irving.
Chelsea: Sanchez, Fofana, Tosin, Colwill, Cucurella, Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez, Madueke, Palmer, Sancho, Jackson.
Subs: Jorgensen, Badiashile, Disasi, Veiga, Dewsbury-Hall, Neto, Mudryk, Joao Felix, Nkunku.
Via nice images from social media, we have the two teams…
So far this season, it’s been far more fun to be an away supporter of West Ham and Chelsea. The Hammers’ travelling faithful have seen their side pick up four points from short trips to Crystal Palace and Fulham while Chelsea’s have made the journey home on the back of a 6-2 thumping of Wolves and a 1-0 success at Bournemouth. At home though, it’s been a very different story. West Ham have suffered back-to-back defeats (against Aston Villa and Manchester City admittedly) while Chelsea have just a single point at Stamford Bridge courtesy of a disappointing 1-1 draw with Palace.
Those Covid/empty stadium-season discrepancies surely can’t continue, or at least Julen Lopetegui hopes they won’t. David Moyes was accused of making the Hammers’ attack less than the sum of its parts and Lopetegui was supposed to reverse the equation when being appointed in the summer. It hasn’t happened so far and new manager goodwill is quick to burn out.
The good news for the Spaniard is that West Ham have strong recent history in this fixture, winning three of the last five on home soil and scoring three goals in each of those victories. Can that continue? Will the Hammers finally click? Will Chelsea have one of their good days? On the evidence of this season so far, nobody knows. Best find out then. It should be fun!
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