Christian Pulisic’s late strike brought an end to Chelsea’s wretched run of home form with a 1-0 victory over West Ham at Stamford Bridge on Sunday afternoon.
Thomas Tuchel’s side had lost three on the bounce at Stamford Bridge, including the midweek defeat to Arsenal, but returned to winning ways despite Jorginho risingta late spot-kick.
The Hammers clearly had one eye on their Europa League semi-final clash with Eintracht Frankfurt on Thursday as David Moyes made six changes to his side, leaving the likes of Declan Rice, Michail Antonio and Jarrod Bowen on the bench, while Tuchel made four alterations, one of them forced at the last minute as Trevor Chalobah came into the lineup after Andreas Christensen complained of stomach trouble during the warm-up.
Kai Havertz returned to lead the line in place of Romelu Lukaku but the German had little to feed off, N’Golo Kante going closest with two long-range efforts, while Said Benrahma pounced on Blues errors to create the Hammers’ only openings of the first 45 minutes.
The home side improved marginally after the break but were thwarted by West Ham’s only fit senior centre-half, Craig Dawson, who made crucial blocks from both Timo Werner and Mason Mount.
Dawson went from hero to villain when he hauled brought down substitute Lukaku late on and was sent off by Michael Oliver after a VAR check, but the hosts looked to have blown the chance to take all three points as Jorginho rolled the weakest of spot-kicks straight at Lukasz Fabianski.
The Italian’s blushes were spared, however, in the 90th-minute as Pulisic came off the bench to sweep home Marcos Alonso’s cross and claim a victory that cements the Blues in third-place.
