Top-four-chasing Chelsea meet relegation-battling London rivals, West Ham in a massive Premier League clash.
Victory would lift Chelsea up to fourth until Sunday afternoon at minimum, whilst West Ham can move back to within two points of safety with a win.
Team News
Chelsea have no fresh injury or suspension concerns to report following their 3-2 Champions League victory away at Napoli.
Dario Essugo (unspecified), Tosin Adarabioyo (hamstring), Romeo Lavia (quad), Levi Colwill (ACL) and Mykhailo Mudryk (suspension) are still sidelined.
West Ham manager, Nuno Espirito Santo could hand new signing, Adama Traore his debut following his arrival from Fulham in midweek.
Lukasz Fabianski remains sidelined with a back injury.
When is Kick-Off?
Chelsea host West Ham at Stamford Bridge on Saturday 31 January at 5:30pm GMT, live on Sky Sports in the UK.
Stat Attack
- Chelsea have lost one of their last eight meetings against West Ham (W6, D1, L1).
- West Ham are winless in their last five league visits to Chelsea (L5).
- Pedro Neto has scored in Chelsea’s last two meetings against West Ham (W2).
- Joao Pedro has scored in both of Liam Rosenoir’s first two league matches in charge of Chelsea (W2).
- Crysencio Summerville has opened the scoring in West Ham’s last two matches (W2).
Prediction
Although Chelsea’s results and attacking form has improved hugely since Rosenoir took charge, there is no doubting that their defence is still messy with just two clean sheets in six games which shows how fragile they can be as Napoli demonstrated with two aggressively clinical goals.
West Ham meanwhile demolished Sunderland in a clinical first-half display before they comfortably controlled the game to its finish amidst a poorly-marked conceded header, but they now need to bring that same quality if want any chance of ending their away rut over Chelsea.
Both teams though are defensively vulnerable to errors but Chelsea’s attacking quality should give them the edge if their comeback at Napoli hasn’t worn them out in this busy period, whereas West Ham will be well-prepared so this could be a tough but entertaining clash.
Prediction: Chelsea 2-1 West Ham
Result: Chelsea 3-2 West Ham
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