The world champions are top of the league, and they didn’t even need Cole Palmer to take them there. You don’t need players of his quality to beat a West Ham side as bad as this one.
Fates are never decided after two games, but for Chelsea this thumping victory at the London Stadium, with goals shared between Joao Pedro, Pedro Neto, Enzo Fernandez, Moises Caicedo and Trevoh Chalobah, secured a lofty perch their owners are yet to experience since taking over the club.
Chelsea will likely only remain there until this afternoon, and if they are to keep themselves in any sort of title race, they will have to dispatch better teams than this wretched West Ham outfit.
But for the first time since Todd Boehly took over and splashed more than a billion, he can go to sleep having taken one last look at the league table and seen his side top of the table. The last time they ended a day top was in December 2021.
You imagine he will sleep better than Graham Potter, who watched his side collapse once again in embarrassing, shameful fashion. Five goals, all from crosses or corners, to leave them bottom of the table. You don’t imagine they will move from their position quite as quickly unless something changes. West Ham need players, and pronto.
Potter has now taken charge of as many league matches as his predecessor, Julen Lopetegui, was afforded before being relieved of his position. The Spaniard’s record read: 20 games, six wins, five draws, nine defeats, 23 points. After last night, Potter’s stands at 20 games, five wins, five draws, 10 defeats, 20 points. His nine points from his first 10 home Premier League games are the worst in the club’s history.
The most fight anyone showed was when a child ran onto the pitch and what looked like his father took umbrage with the heavy-handed stewards trying to escort the little tyke back to the stands.
The stadium announcer did his best to drum up some early atmosphere, welcoming the supporters back for not just any first home game of the season but a London derby under the lights. ‘What more could you want,’ he asked. You wondered whether the spattering of fans who had got to their seats early would give their answers alphabetically or in order of preference.
Quite high up that list, however, would be for your Brazilian playmaker, in his first competitive home game since being cleared of spot-fixing, to put one in the top corner from 25 yards inside the first 10 minutes. There was that little bit of hope.
Paqueta carried the ball forward, glanced up to see if there was anyone to pass to, and, when no one took his fancy, let fly with his left foot.
West Ham supporters have experienced scant moments to lift them off their seats in recent times, but boy, did this do the trick.
But this is West Ham, of course, a team that has only won twice on this ground since Potter took charge. It was never going to be straightforward to secure a third, not when his defence is so adept at failing to do, as Potter called it this week, the ‘basics’.
Two goals from crosses against Sunderland and another five here. For a team that plays with five across the back, they have a real knack for having none in the vicinity of opposition players when the ball comes into the box.
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