For Chelsea, the only difference in the performance was the scoreline. After two consecutive goalless draws, this 1-1 at West Ham does little to suggest that Graham Potter is any closer to figuring out what he wants his Chelsea side to look like. A point does little to improve the fortunes of Chelsea and West Ham, but both will come away frustrated at not snatching three. Tomas Soucek’s disallowed goal 10 minutes from time was the closest either team came, although Chelsea will quite rightly question how the West Ham midfielder’s handball was not given as a penalty late on.
“It was a good save,” Potter said afterwards, and an extraordinary miss by the VAR followed the narrowest of offsides; Chelsea can say they got away with one and were still denied. Still, it means Potter’s side have just two wins in 13 Premier League matches, and the glow of the transfer window has now firmly gone. After a bright start, helped by the return of Joao Felix, Chelsea returned to their usual habits and Potter once again struggled to come up with a solution. Felix aside, Chelsea were blunt and uninspired – their efforts in the second half were simply more of the same after stalemates against Liverpool and Fulham.
West Ham thought they had done enough after Declan Rice met Emerson Palmieri’s free kick and Soucek scrambled in the equaliser, and Chelsea could have had no complaints had it stood. Potter said he saw improvements in his team’s performance but they failed to have an attempt on target after the break – aside from Conor Gallagher’s shot that was blocked close to the turf by Soucek’s outstretched arm.
A draw was fitting, though, for clubs who are not where they want to be, and whose efforts to improve their position in the table turned out to be the sight of two teams bashing their heads against a closed door, but with all the enthusiasm and energy of a 12:30pm Saturday kick-off. For Potter, though, there were at least spells early on where Chelsea resembled what they are: a team who have spent £320m on exciting new talent, as well as bringing in the fourth most expensive player in the world on loan.
Felix returned for Chelsea after his three-game suspension and suddenly, like it was for 59 minutes on his debut against Fulham, everything looked as if it was going to be fine. The 23-year-old was the best player on the pitch in the opening exchanges but faded, while Mykhailo Mudryk and Noni Madueke also grew cold after promising starts.
Chelsea had at least scored by that point – with Felix capping a brilliant opening 15 minutes with his team’s first goal in three games – but Emerson’s equaliser against his former side halted the momentum of the visitors and they lost their direction from there. The sight of Marc Cucurella twice passing back to Kepa Arrizabalaga from a short corner was enough evidence of that.
And so Chelsea and Potter returned to this frustrating but mildly compelling game of problem solving they are currently playing, which is throwing on a jumble of substitutions in the faint hope that something will change. Mason Mount came on with a point to prove, Ben Chilwell was an undeniable upgrade on the Chelsea version of Cucurella – who was cheered off by the away fans – but is Hakim Ziyech really the answer? What can Conor Gallagher do differently to Ruben Loftus-Cheek? The problem for Potter, simply, is the changes had no effect.
Indeed, this is a strange team, perhaps illustrated that their best player in Felix, the most promising building block they have in this bloated squad, might not be here in four months. Chelsea had started on the front foot, with Felix heavily involved inside the opening 10 minutes and it was no surprise that he arrived for the opening goal and finished Enzo Fernandez’s excellent cross. Meanwhile, Todd Boehly clapped excitedly like a child who had hit the target at the funfair.
To be fair, Felix had been fantastic until that point. The Portuguese was not just engrossing every time he touched the ball, with deft flicks and subtle touches in between his smooth, floating movement, but he also motioned and demanded, directing Chelsea’s play. Before his goal he had another disallowed: a dinked finish over Fabianski, put in off the post, that was ruled out for a very obvious offside. At times he looked like he was playing his own game – playground football in the Premier League.
It radiated onto Chelsea in moments. Madueke was bright and adventurous, Mudryk sharp and incisive. The Ukrainian produced a sensational reverse pass to find a run from Kai Havertz that genuinely drew a gasp from the West Ham fans. Havertz rounded Fabianski and finished before the flag again went up for offside, but the move had Potter grinning on the touchline. Chelsea’s dominance was reflected by a group of pigeons taking up residence in Kepa’s penalty box, where they remained undisturbed for several minutes.
It had been that sort of performance from West Ham, and even their first forays into the Chelsea box did not seem to pose much danger. Michail Antonio scrambled their first effort wide before Thilo Kehrer headed past the post. It did little to rouse the home fans and when the equaliser came from an unthreatening position, it also seemed to catch Chelsea off guard. Vladimir Coufal was allowed time to pick out his cross on the right, Bowen flicked on at the front post, and the other wing back Emerson arrived to finish at the angle against his former club. West Ham had turned up, belatedly.
Chelsea now faced the daunting task of having to score twice, and they came close in flashes before the break. Madueke forced a good save from Fabianski with a fierce shot after cutting inside. Felix saw a free kick, like Reece James earlier, saved. Benoit Badiashile headed a decent chance over. From there, though, West Ham were fairly comfortable and as Potter began his game of Chelsea lottery, they had seen out the worst of the storm. Chelsea now head to Dortmund in the Champions League no closer to finding their spark.
A late penalty may have been the break Chelsea needed yet, had Soucek been an inch or two further behind the line, this growing crisis on the pitch could have been even worse.
