Chelsea v West Ham: Premier League – live! | Premier League

27 min: John Potter gets in touch: “Not sure your comment about the table and top 4 for Chelsea looking insecure stands up to scrutiny. They have games in hand on everyone around them still and are still in the box seat I’d say.”

Watching this showing so far, I really wouldn’t be so sure.

26 mins: This is very strange from Chelsea. Mount wafts one wide, and nobody seems to care. Aside from Thomas Tuchel who has his face on.

23 mins: Alonso’s cross comes in, Dawson gets it clear. Yarmolenko and Fornals link and Kante has to run back to quell the danger. Chelsea continues to be sloppier than a tin of condensed milk.

21 mins: Thankfully, Soucek looks OK, relief for David Moyes, who is on injury watch or this game. Every tackle must make him win.

19 mins: Nasty clash of heads between Thiago Silva, and Thomas Soucek, with the West Ham player coming off worse.

17 mins: Declan Rice warms up, and gets applause from the away fans. Benrahma escapes after Azpilicueta, his boots perhaps hampers him, but shoots at Mendy. Then Chalobah loses the ball to Fornals. So sloppy from Chelsea.

15 mins: Thomas T is writing notes, and he doesn’t seem happy. Werner then finds space on the left, and whips a ball to the back post that Havertz doesn’t get to. Would Romelu Lukaku have done better with that. The answer, sadly, is very probably not. That’s been an arse-clenchingly bad move for all, hasn’t it?

13 mins: In the dugout, Declan Rice is sat behind David Moyes and the hope is that the West Ham captain doesn’t have to play a second of this game.

11 mins: Azpilicueta has to leave the field as his boots have split in half and he’s giving the kitman some grievance as he searches for a spare pair.

10 minutes: Yarmolenko shows some impressive strength on the ball in midfield, he’s making his first Premier League start in 16 months.

8 mins: Masuaku has taken a knock, and West Ham can’r really afford another injury though the full-back is OK to continue. Meanwhile, Ruben Loftus-Cheek cuts in from the right and shoots with his left.

6 mins: As for this game, it’s been a little sterile, like it’s the end of the season or something.

5 mins: News from Brightonwhere the home team lead Southampton 1-0 thanks to a goal from Danny Welbeck.

3 mins: Early attack for Chelsea, Kai Havertz makes inroads before Jorginho’s pass goes out of play. The empty seats really are apparent. The Bridge is something of a ghost ship.

1 min: And away we go in Sunday’s London derby. On the TV, Gary Neville is saying the pitch is pristine, so there goes the Clive Walker talk.

The teams are out at the Bridge, with those rather eerie empty seats, and perhaps the ghost of the sandy pitch Claudio Ranieri used to complain about, and before that Clive Walker and Peter Rhoades-Brown would dazzle upon. The empty seats lower down the stand remind of mid-1990s Chelsea so expect to see Paul Furlong, Mark Stein and John Spencer making their rounds.

Looking at that table, perhaps the top four is not so secure for Chelsea.

“We felt it was the right thing to do today,” says David Moyes, who says the Burnley result last week – a draw – made his mind up for him in making all those selection changes.

Breaking news: another Chelsea change, as Andreas Christensen felt sick during the warmup so in comes Treoh Chalobah. Thomas Tuchel says Ruben Loftus-Cheek will play at right wing-back.

Jeff Harris gets in touch: “What about a mention of Banbury United. Southern League Central DivisionChampions. One home defeat and one away defeat all season. 102 points over the season>”

Yeah, what about them, Jeff?

Thomas Tuchel spoke this week of his team’s drop in form.

Maybe … then it comes back to me because I should push them and make them alert,” he said. “It’s human to be tired, human to be more alert in a knockout game than a normal match. Sometimes it’s also good, the foundation to be able to play 60 games.

I remember at Mainz with one game a week and every game was like a cup final. On a Saturday, we gave 150% physically but also mentally, the players were drained until Tuesday. Once I stepped into being coach at Borussia Dortmund, I saw that players gave everything physically on a normal match but mentally it was not the same stress level as for players at Mainz. They were capable of playing more games.

It’s a thin line in judging – that’s why lazy is the wrong word. But it’s OK to feel less tension in a normal match in the Premier League and a home match than if you go to the Bernabéu. It’s normal because it is maybe less tension, less excitement, less pressure. But it cannot lead to being less alert. This can never happen.

The uncertainty at the club is reflected by the loss of their star defender, a player just about any club would like to make us of.

So, Frankfurt is on David Moyes’s mind with those six changes, with Declan Rice is on the bench, as is Jarred Bowen and Michail Antonio. What of Chelsea? Malang Sarr and Romelu Lukaku are left out, little surprise after that Arsenal defeat in midweek. Reece James is not fit to play, and in come Jorginho, Thiago Silva and Kai Havertz, not a bad trio to bring in against the Hammers’ reserves.

The teams

Preamble