After so much incoherent mumbling, Chelsea are finally beginning to make a little sense. Not enough to trust them, but sufficient for Mauricio Pochettino to articulate a strong case for continued employment beyond this summer.
As ever, any talk of revivals ought to be weighed against the calamities that have followed each of their new dawns in this strangest of campaigns.
But there is also no doubt that Pochettino has orchestrated a reasonable upturn, with victory over Tottenham now followed by this exuberant demolition of another London rival.
In what was their fourth win in seven league games, Chelsea were excellent. There was no ambiguity around that and no suggestion either that this was a one-man effort.
Unlike a number of their high points this season, Cole Palmer wasn’t the sole agent of destruction. Sure, he was brilliant, which extends further than his latest goal – the 21st of his wonderous campaign to go with nine assists – but here he had company. Here, the load was shared. Here, the quality rotated and sparkled. Whisper it and then forget it, because less than a fortnight ago they were walloped 5-0 by Arsenal, but here they looked like a fine team.
Chelsea ran riot against West Ham to bolster their hopes of securing European football
Mauricio Pochettino may well have earned himself a second season in charge at Chelsea
It was a tough afternoon for West Ham who are now without a win in their last six matches
Conor Gallagher was naturally among the best of them. Anyone within that boardroom who sees pure profit in his performances ought to be drummed out of west London – he is pure class and indispensable; a master of winning the ball back and one of the safest pairs of boots when they have it. His goal was extremely well taken.
Then you had Noni Madueke, delivering arguably his best showing of the season. He annihilated Emerson in the battle up Chelsea’s right flank, which saw a scruffy goal scored and an unselfish assist provided for Nicolas Jackson, whose own season is mirroring that of his club. This former lightning rod for Pochettino’s difficulties impressed against Spurs and got two in this mauling, which increased the momentum of Chelsea belated push for European qualification.
Now this is the tricky part – how do you contextualise a hiding when the victim is so awfully poor as the side served up by David Moyes at Stamford Bridge? They were rotten. Spineless. Gutless. For what he has brought to West Ham, we might fairly say that his tenure deserved a more spirited end, if these do indeed prove to be his final weeks at the club.
In that conversation, he was let down by this performance. Shamed by the indifference of it. If Julen Lopetegui was watching, he might well have incurred a few reservations about the character of a squad that could draw with Liverpool and roll over so softly next time out.
This battering could be foretold almost immediately. Not necessarily through glaring opportunities but in the ease with which Chelsea retained possession and then regained it. West Ham’s complicity in all that cannot be understated – their midfield was dismally willing to be ransacked.
On the back of their performance against Liverpool, we might have expected something far more robust. Moyes certainly did – he went with an unchanged side here, but it’s odd how the same cogs can have such variance.
Inside four minutes we saw Moises Caicedo charging 30 yards or more unchallenged through the middle of the pitch. Such freedoms presumably weren’t in the plan, though in this case the move broke down on the edge of West Ham’s area when Jackson fumbled his touch.
Cole Palmer pounced on a loose ball inside the box put the hosts in front after just 15 minutes
Palmer is now sitting second in the Premier League’s Golden Boot race with 21 goals
Captain Conor Gallagher volleyed on the half-hour mark to double his side’s advantage
The Blues midfielder is pure class and indispensable, but uncertainty remains over his future
Noni Madueke added a third just minutes later to heap misery on the hapless Hammers
A moment later, Emerson was dragged out of position at left back and surrendered space for Gallagher to play a quick free-kick up the line to Jackson. Cutting in from the right, he went for the snapshot to the near post and Alphonse Areola saved, but those two warnings illustrated what each manager was working with.
The pay off came just shy of the quarter-hour mark, though there was a degree of fortune in it for Chelsea, with Jackson meeting a cross from Madueke and crashing his volley against Kurt Zouma’s thigh. In the randomness of a ricochet, the ball could have gone anywhere, but it chose Palmer and the inevitable followed – a lovely, precise hit to the corner.
For the briefest of moments, West Ham summoned some resilience, with Jarrod Bowen heading against the bar almost immediately after the restart, but it was a short-lived fight. Across the next few passages of play, both Jackson and Madueke were able to surge unimpeded through Moyes’s midfield towards threatening outcomes before the second strike arrived in the 30th minute.
As with the first goal, there was some good fortune, and once more the luck went against Zouma. This time he blocked a Madueke volley and it was Gallagher who lashed in the loose ball.
Sensing a capitulation, Chelsea pushed for more and found it via Madueke. He had been left free by Tomas Soucek when Mykhailo Mudryk’s corner passed overhead and was in the right spot to nudge over the line after Thiago Silva rerouted it back the other way.
Watching a replay on his monitor, Moyes had a look of disgust carved into his face – set-piece errors always sting him more.
The strike was Madueke’s eighth goal in all competitions for Chelsea this season
West Ham had their share of chances after the interval but Moyes’ side were unable to convert
Nicolas Jackson was on hand to further increase his side’s lead, netting a second-half brace
Defeat piles more pressure on David Moyes whose future at the club is looking uncertain
Both Gallagher and Bowen hit the opposing bars towards the end of the half, before Chelsea got the second going with another slap for their visitors.
Better put, West Ham tripped themselves up. Full marks to Trevoh Chalobah for the 50-yard through-ball that Madueke kindly squared for Jackson to tap in, but Emerson’s tracking of the English winger off the initial pass was shambolic.
Jackson’s second carried a higher tariff of difficulty, but he nailed the one on one with Areola after a ball up the middle from Caicedo. Naturally, it started with a West Ham gaffe when Soucek mis-controlled, but Moyes was beyond gesticulating at this point.
If there was any relief for him, it is that most of West Ham’s fans had already gone home.
