**West Ham face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge at 5pm, hoping to close the gap on Nottingham Forest and Leeds.**
To call this game a ‘must win’ when it’s away to one of these best sides in the League is mad, but with the position we’re in we can’t write any games off.
Coming off the back of three wins in a row, two in the Premier League, West Ham should really have hope coming into this.
Yes Rosenior has won five of his six games in charge of the Blues, but I don’t think they have been really impressive. We have been really impressive in the last two matches. So, we have a real chance.
As long as we keep playing the same way, with the same relationships on the pitch, with the same commitment and togetherness I really believe we can comfortably beat Chelsea tonight.
The Blues are coming off the back of a long Wednesday night trip to Naples where they defeated Napoli 3-2 in the Champions League.
They would normally play on the Sunday, but given so many teams play in Europe now, one team had to take the 5:30 slot on Saturday and that happened to be Chelsea.
This should really benefit us, players may tire early, and yes, they have a big squad, but if they rotate, their staring XI won’t be as strong, against favouring the Hammers who have pretty much everyone fit and raring to go.
If we want to win, we need to win the midfield battle. It maybe hard for Soucek and Fernandes to win the battle against three in midfield. But if they play like they have been, I think we can do it.
The defence also has to be in top form, Joao Pedro will be buzzing for this game after scoring a brace on Wednesday so we have to be careful.
We also might need a goal from one of the strikers. Hammers fans have fallen in love with them already, but for their hard work, not their goalscoring or even talent yet, this evening would be an excellent time for them to show that.
I’m not silly, I know pretty much everything has to be spot on for his to get a result at Stanford Bridge tonight, but I really believe it can, it needs to.
Come on you Irons!