West Ham United 1-1 Chelsea, Premier League: Post-match reaction, ratings

Chelsea started very well, with practically all the possession and with plenty of incisive passing and movement. João Félix almost opened the scoring inside of 10 minutes, but was clearly offside despite the flag going up late.

But there was no flag five minutes later, when he finished off a lovely deep cross from Enzo Fernández. Havertz was then marginally offside on a fantastic reverse ball from Mudryk, ruling out a second goal for us.

And then suddenly Chelsea switched off and it was all West Ham. Given all the time and space they needed on the flanks, Coufal crossed, Bowen flicked it on, and former Chelsea man Emerson arrived unchecked at the far post to bundle it home. Frustratingly easy equalizer after all the good work in the half.

Then West Ham went back into their shell, but Chelsea were not able to find another goal before half. And that was the story for much of the second half as well, but without much of the incision we had seen in the first half.

A triple-sub just past the hour-mark looked to change our fortunes, and while we finally generated a couple half-chances, much of the early creativity was gone as we settled for cross after cross. And it were West Ham who almost pinched the winning goal, but we were saved by the offside flag.

And before the final whistle, West Ham got lucky with a handball in the box not called, just to make the afternoon even more frustrating.

Carefree.

• Three changes from last weekend, and a formation shift to a midfield-two as well. RLC, Félix, and Madueke in for Mount, Gallagher, Ziyech
• Triple sub halfway through the second half restoring Mount and Ziyech, plus Chilwell.
• Chelsea stay ninth; four in a row unbeaten, but the last three draws.
• Next up: Borussia Dortmund away, in the first leg of the Champions League Round of 16 on Wednesday
• KTBFFH

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