Chelsea overturned a poor first half to claim a vital 3-2 home win over West Ham United. A nervy opening left Stamford Bridge frustrated, but timely changes and second-half intensity produced a dramatic turnaround.<\/p>\n
The match turned on substitutions. Jo\u00e3o Pedro, Marc Cucurella and Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez each had decisive roles after the interval. Jo\u00e3o Pedro, introduced at half-time, \u201ccompletely took over the game in the second half\u201d, sparking the comeback with a goal and later providing the assist for Fern\u00e1ndez\u2019s stoppage-time winner. The report rates Jo\u00e3o Pedro 8.3 for his two goal contributions.<\/p>\n
Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez marked his 150th Chelsea appearance by crashing the box to score the decisive goal. The Argentine was described as dictating the game from deep and was rewarded at the death. He is given an 8.3 rating for his influence and the match-winning finish.<\/p>\n
Marc Cucurella, brought on for Jorrel Hato at half-time, was credited with stopping further danger from Jarrod Bowen and scored the equaliser with instinctive movement. His performance earns an 8.1.<\/p>\n
Chelsea\u2019s issues were clear in the first half. Robert S\u00e1nchez produced a costly error from a Jarrod Bowen cross and was judged unable to deal with the opener; his rating is 6.0. Defensively the team was unsettled early, with Beno\u00eet Badiashile substituted at the break and the back line described as chaotic until the changes. Wesley Fofana (7.4) helped steady that defence and his cross led to Chelsea\u2019s first goal.<\/p>\n
Other incidents included Jamie Gittens leaving injured before the half-hour mark, replaced by Pedro Neto (6.7). Reece James had limited time after coming on late. The statistics underline Chelsea\u2019s control: 70% possession, 14 total shots with six on target, and an expected goals (xG) of 2.55 to West Ham\u2019s 1.12.<\/p>\n
The result moves Rosenior\u2019s side into the Champions League places for the night, a reward for a recovery that matched the hostility of the early boos with celebration at the final whistle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chelsea recovered from a poor first half to win 3-2, Jo\u00e3o Pedro, Cucurella and Enzo key. Late drama.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6376,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,172],"tags":[227,319,1428],"class_list":["post-6377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-epl","tag-alejandro-garnacho","tag-cole-palmer","tag-joao-pedro-player"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}