Thiago Silva tricked
The Brazilian defender has been the epitome of calm, class and cool in a tumultuous and difficult season. Silva was no different against West Ham on Saturday afternoon. The veteran, fresh from signing a deal to extend his Chelsea stay by another year, even showed a turn of pace to chase down Said Benrahma and execute a finely timed sliding challenge.
However, the trip to the London Stadium exposed a rare moment that Silva was caught unawares. The former AC Milan and PSG star was among the first players to emerge into the tunnel from the changing rooms and lent against the wall as he awaited his teammates.
The opposition were also making their way out following their final preparations, and were set to join their mascots. One of the youngsters looked across to the 38-year-old Silva and offered his hand with great enthusiasm to the Chelsea ace.
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Silva was only too happy to respond and stepped across the tunnel and outstetched his own hand in return but before he could meet his youthful adversary, the mascot lifted his hand away and putting his thumb to his nose in mockery. Of course, Silva took it well, looked to quickly get revenge but failed before enjoying a warm greeting with his new foe. A nice moment.
Benoit Badiashile angers the opposition
The French defender has enjoyed a strong start to life in the Premier League with the help of Silva. Badiashile has shown a strong and composed presence on his way to earning clean sheets with the Blues but showed he's capable of battling when things aren't easy, too.
The 21-year-old was up for the challenge of Michail Antonio and even in moments he lost the first challenge, he was able to recover to win the ball back. It was a moment when he was not involved in play that might have sparked some additional satisfaction for Chelsea supporters, however.
After Jarrod Bowen was denied a penalty for coming together with James in the Chelsea penalty area, play moved on with the West Ham forward still languishing on the ground. The Irons' appeals were waved away, yet Bowen remained.
Badiashile simply stared at his opponenent before walking by him and actively stepping over him as if to assert dominance in a manner akin to Antonio Rudiger, seemingly letting him know what he thought of his attempts to win a penalty. It did not go down to well with West Ham supporters nearby but Badiashile was barely phased as he continued with the game.
Chelsea's youthful record
Much has been made of the fact that Graham Potter utlised five of his January signings against West Ham. Many of them have made promising contributions in their opening weeks with the club and they were once again among Chelsea's more impressive players against West Ham.
Potter was without eight players from the trip across London, and still needed to leave the likes of Kalidou Koulibaly and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang out of his matchday squad. The Chelsea boss admitted it would be a challenge to bed all of his players in.
He said: "It's a challenge but it's my job. It's exciting, it tests you because you have to make sure you communicate properly and manage the environment because otherwise it can go not very positive. The week has been a really good training week, spirit in the group is really good, not just the team. They know what it is, they're not stupid. There's big competition for places.
"We need healthy competition, we need training to be better and better because that's how you improve. Then you just have to have honest conversations and respect the fact players will be disappointed because that's normal. It would be strange if it wasn't. These are top professionals, top people, they handle themselves well."
However, what went slightly under the radar was the age of Chelsea's team. As per Opta, the Blues named more players under the age of 24 in their starting XI, than they ever have before in the Premier League. Noni Madueke, Mykhailo Mudryk, Joao Felix, Badiashile and Enzo Fernandez were all new additions under that age, with Kai Havertz and Reece James making up the rest.
With Mason Mount and Conor Gallagher also coming off the bench, it's quite a feat. Nevertheless, Potter will need to facilitate a platform for this youth to succeed.
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