**West Ham ruined what should’ve been a crucial three points against Chelsea with a shocking tactical switch in the second half from manager Nuno Espirito Santo.**
The Hammers were excellent in the first-half, yes the Blues were bad, but Nuno’s team made them look even worse, the hard-work, the pressing, the organisation, the game-plan was perfect in the first-half.
We went into the break 2-0 up thanks to goals from Bowen and Summerville, but it really should have been three or four. Going into the second half we all hoped we could keep it up, but in reality, Chelsea were always going to improve after they made changes, and Rosenior made three of them at the break.
We actually started the second pretty well, Mateus Fernandes went close with a shot from the edge of the box, However, one lapse of defensive concentration allowed the Blues to get one back just before the hour mark. Substitute Fofana’s cross found substitute Joao Pedro in the box who headed past Areola.
Less than ten minutes after the goal is where it was lost, we were dropping deeper already and they almost did make it 2-2, Caicedo forced Areola into a wonderful save.
However, bringing on Max Kilman in the 66th minute was an absolutely appalling decision, not only was it the wrong player, a player who has been awful in claret and blue pretty much since he signed. The decision to bring on another central defender for a striker and drop so deep was absolutely crazy from Nuno.
The Portuguese manager must know by now that this team can’t defend under pressure, we can defend when we’re on the front foot, when we aren’t sitting deep ad being bombarded. As soon as that bombardment started every single Hammers fan knew it was going to end badly. And unsurprisingly, we were proven right.
We bottled an excellent first-half performance, a 2-0 lead away at Chelsea, a extremely average Chelsea side too. To do that in the position we are in right now is unforgivable, I really struggle to see how the players can be motivated again for the rest of the season after that,
This game feels like a very pivotal moment of our season, as we look like we’re really starting to turn it around, we do that. We’re now six points below both Forest and Leeds with a significantly worse goal difference than both sides. It’s going to take some shift for us to stay up now, after getting two wins in a row, we’re still two wins off safety, it’s not looking good.