Chelsea vs West Ham United

Sunday 17^th March2013

16:00

Stamford Bridge

Chelsea vs West Ham United

Head to Head

40% Head to Head Win% 39%

53 Won 51

28 Drawn 28

51 Lost 53

242 Scored 224

224 Conceded 242

L W W L D W Recent Form L L W L L W

7 Goals Scored 7

6 Goals Conceded 13

W W W D W W Home/Away Form L L L L L W

15 Goals Scored 4

4 Goals Conceded 14

Juan Mata Form Player Joe Cole

72.41 Average Capello Index Rating Last 6 Games 65.00

1 Goals 2

3 Assists 0

67.41 Average Capello Index Rating League 65.00

22(6) Appearances 6(1)

10 Goals 2

9 Assists 1

68 Chances Created 15

1365 Passes 199

11161 Completed 161

85% %Completed 81%

Analysis

We all know that Chelsea are a top class outfit. They have some of the most gifted attacking footballers on the planet in Juan Mata, Eden Hazard & Emboaba Oscar. They have some top class international defenders in John Terry, Ashley Cole & Branislav Ivanovic. And they have a few former West Ham players to spice things up in Frank Lampard & Demba Ba.

But we also know that we can beat them.

The key to beating Chelsea is to attack them. In the 3-1 home victory back in December, we lost the first half 0-1, with James Tomkins sitting in midfield and we threatened to create pretty much nothing. The introduction of Mohamed Diamé for the second half changed the game, as we attacked relentlessly, penning Chelsea in taking the half 3-0.

We aren't famed for our positive play away from home, but hopefully that is starting to change. In the aftermath of our fantastic 1-0 victory in the Potteries a fortnight ago, I showed a graphic displaying how Matt Jarvis, Joey O'Brien & Guy Demel, in particular, pushed high up the pitch at the Britannia, penning in the Stoke defence allowing us to take the front foot.

This style of play is similar to the way we played so effectively against Chelsea back in December. It was the same three suspects who really pressed high up the pitch, with Jarvis, O'Brien & Demel offering great width going forward. As a result, West Ham managed to put 37 crosses into to box, and a massive 88% of our shots that day were taken from inside the Chelsea box.

To show that our win over Chelsea was no fluke, lets look at how Newcastle United managed to defeat the Blues 3-2 a couple of months back. Both fullbacks, Davide Santon (# 3) & Mathieu Debuchy (# 26) pushed high and wide, with Youan Gouffran (# 11) also pushing up the pitch (albeit in a slightly narrower position). This pressing and width allowed Moussa Sissoko (# 7) to push high up the pitch to play alongside the lone striker Papiss Cisse (# 9).

Sissoko is a player who has very similar attributes to our own Mohamed Diamé, and both players have turned in goalscoring, match winning performances against Chelsea this season. With the possible absence of Kevin Nolan this weekend, my desire would be to see Diamé played in the hole behind Andy Carroll, using his energy to press the Chelsea defence into making mistakes.

What we cannot do, is give the Chelsea players time on the ball. In their recent 4-1 win against Wigan Athletic, Chelsea's players were afforded far too much time and space to control the game. Wigan played with a deep back three with two wingbacks. Neither of their wing backs pushed high enough up the pitch to be effective as attackers, but they did stray far enough forward to be defensive liabilities. Similarly, the midfield due of McArthur and McCarthy (# 16 & 4) sat too deep to penetrate the Chelsea defence.

I suppose the key in this game is what we all thought it would be. Sit off and defend, and Chelsea will likely pick us off. Playing a high, attacking line may be a risky strategy, but the rewards are massive. If we can play how did at the Boleyn we may come back across London with a win.

Any victory at this stage is a huge step towards safety, but an unlikely away win against the champions of Europe? Well that may just see us home.

As Rafa might say, that is a fact.

Last Meeting
1st December 2012

Goalscorers:

0:1 Juan Mata 13’

1:1 Carlton Cole 66''
2:1 Mohamed Diamé 86'
3:1 Modibo Maiga 90'

4-2-3-1 Starting Formation 4-2-3-1

Petr Cech - Jussi Jaaskelainen
Cesar Azpilicueta - Guy Demel
Gary Cahill - James Collins
Branislav Ivanovic - Winston Reid
Ashley Cole - Joey O'Brien
Ramires - James Tomkins
Jon Obi Mikel - Mark Noble
Victor Moses - Gary O'Neil
Juan Mata - Kevin Nolan
Eden Hazard - Matt HJarvis
Fernando Torres - Carlton Cole

Juan Mata Best Performer Mohamed Diamé

74.01 Capello Index Rating 76.23

Gary Cahill Worst Performer James Tomkins

58.88 Capello Index Rating 60.94

Absentees

Injured/Doubtful:

Joe Cole (WHU)
Matthew Taylor (WHU)
Kevin Nolan (WHU)
Mark Noble (WHU) 
George McCartney (WHU)

Oriol Romeau (CFC)

Suspensions:

n/a

Opposition Last Time Out

vs Steaua Bucuresti

Goalscorers

1:0 Juan Mata 33'
1:1 Vlad Chiriches 45'
2:1 John Terry 58'
3:1 Fernando Torres 71'

Best Player: Juan Mata

Capello Index Rating: 72.41

Worst Player: David Luiz

Capello Index Rating: 58.36

Top 5’s (minimum 5 apps)

Goals Scored

Juan Mata 18 - 6 Kevin Nolan
Fernando Torres 16 - 4 Mark Noble
Frank Lampard 13 - 3 Andy Carroll
Eden Hazard 11 - 3 Modibo Maiga
Emboaba Oscar 9 - 2 Joe Cole

Passing Accuracy

Jon Obi Mikel 89.9% - 82.9% Mohamed Diamé
Oriol Romeu 89.3% - 82.3% Mark Noble
John Terry 89.0% - 81.3% Guy Demel
Gary Cahill 89.0% - 80.9% Joe Cole
Ashley Cole 88.3% - 79.8% George McCartney

Chances Created per game

Juan Mata 2.6 - 2.1 Joe Cole
Eden Hazard 1.8 - 1.5 Mark Noble
Emboaba Oscar - 1.4 - 1.5 Andy Carroll
Frank Lampard 1.1 - 1.3 Matt Jarvis
Fernando Torres 1.0 - 1.3 Ricardo Vaz Te

Tackles per game

Ramires 3.3 - 4.0 Mark Noble
Cesar Azpilicueta 2.6 - 3.9 Mohamed Diamé
Ashley Cole 2.4 - 2.0 George McCartney
Jon Obi Mikel 2.4 - 1.8 Winston Reid
Emboaba Oscar 2.3 - 1.8 James Collins

Aerial Duels Won per game

Gary Cahill 3.0 - 10.5 Andy Carroll
John Terry 2.8 - 4.3 Carlton Cole
Branislav Ivanovic 2.2 - 3.6 James Collins
Fernando Torres 2.2 - 2.9 James Tomkins
David Luiz 1.8 - 2.6 Winston Reid

Managers 

Rafael Benitez - Sam Allardyce

52% Current Club Win% 44%

16 Won 37

8 Drawn 21

7 Lost 25

50% Managerial Career Win% 40%

404 Won 332

198 Drawn 221

207 Lost 273

2 League Titles 2

7 Cup Wins 0