Chelsea welcome West Ham to Stamford Bridge in a blockbuster cross-London derby as both teams battle for Champions League qualification.
Victory would see Chelsea stay third in the table and boost their top-four ambitions, whereas West Ham can go sixth with a win.
Team News
Antonio Rudiger is ruled out for Chelsea as he continues to recover from a groin injury which forced him to miss Wednesday’s defeat against Arsenal.
Andreas Christiansen (knock) is a doubt but Mateo Kovacic (ankle), Callum Hudson-Odoi (Achilles) and Ben Chilwell (knee) remain absent.
West Ham will be without Issa Diop after he suffered an ankle injury in last weekend’s draw against Burnley.
Kurt Zouma (ankle) and Angelo Ogbonna (knee) remain absent.
Stat Attack
- Chelsea have won two of their last five meetings against West Ham (W2, L3).
- West Ham have won just one of their last 15 league visits to Stamford Bridge (W1, D4, L10).
- Chelsea have scored all six of their penalties against West Ham in 51 previous Premier League meetings.
- Timo Werner has scored three goals in Chelsea’s last two league matches.
- West Ham are winless in their last five away league matches (D1, L4).
Prediction
Chelsea’s packed run of fixtures seem to have finally caught up defensively because despite dominating large parts of Wednesday’s loss to Arsenal, their defence was often sloppy or caught too high up the pitch at other moments but they did show great first-half spirit to twice fight back.
West Ham’s top-four hopes now seem doubtful so I wonder if they might view their Europa League semi-final as the bigger priority, especially with Diop now ruled out along with Zouma in central defence which is a worry for David Moyes.
Moyes’ Hammers though need to improve their attacking quality because they were very wasteful against Burnley last weekend despite defending well throughout, yet this is a London derby which should hopefully lift the spirits of both teams.
Chelsea though will be eager to avoid getting dragged into a late-season scrap for Champions League qualification, so I expect them to come out fighting but the Hammers should have enough quality to cause their own issues for Thomas Tuchel’s Blues.
Prediction: Chelsea 1-1 West Ham
Result: Chelsea 1-0 West Ham
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