38 min: But the hosts come again and win their third corner of the match, down the right. Bowen to take.
37 min: The resulting corner is a waste of time and energy.
36 min: The free kick’s flung into the mixer. After some head tennis, Soucek flicks goalwards, aiming for the bottom left. Azpilicueta heads down and bundles the ball out for a corner. Mr VAR checks for a penalty, because of course he does, a suggestion that Azpilicueta guided the ball onto his own arm. But no.
35 min: That might change now, as Werner slides in on the in-flight Lingard from behind. A booking, and a free kick out on the left. West Ham line up on the edge of the Chelsea box.
34 min: Noble shimmies down the middle before sending the ball wide right for Coufal, who shakes his hips before whipping a cross into the mixer. Chelsea deal with it well, though that was a nice build-up from West Ham, who have yet to make any attempt on goal whatsoever.
33 min: Rudiger channels his inner Beckenbauer and strides down the inside-left channel. He slips a pass wide left for Chilwell, whose dinked cross only just eludes Werner in the middle. Signs that after a quiet period, Chelsea are beginning to ask some questions again.
31 min: Mount meanders down the right and rolls infield for Werner, who has his back to goal. He spins and shoots, but it’s always going high and wide right. For a brief second there, West Ham were exposed.
30 min: Mount and Diop get involved in a petulant shoving match over a free kick in the middle of the park. It all calms down quickly enough. Nothing else is happening.
29 min: Chelsea have enjoyed 73 percent of the possession so far. They’ve done very little with it since those early exchanges.
28 min: A West Ham clearance nearly turns into a killer through ball, Bowen chasing it down the middle. He’d be free, had Mendy not spotted the danger early, racing from his box and heading clear.
26 min: Fredericks threatens to tear clear of Azpilicueta down the left, but the Chelsea captain sticks in a toe to deflect out for a corner. From the set piece, Chelsea threaten to break up the other end, but Mount runs down a dead end on the left wing.
24 min: Fourth and fifth are cancelling each other out right now.
22 min: It’s a non-event. Like West Ham before them, Chelsea must wait a little longer for their tenth goal of the season from a corner.
21 min: Werner dribbles back and forth across the front of the West Ham box. He works just enough space to shoot, and his low drive is deflected out for a corner on the right.
19 min: The game suddenly becomes extremely scrappy. Periods of possession longer than two seconds come at a premium right now.
17 min: Chelsea pass and probe, probe and pass. Finally Jorginho swings one in from the right. Werner rises but is beaten to the header by Balbuena.
15 min: Werner grooves his way down the right and pulls back for Pulisic, racing in to meet the low cross, 12 yards out. He sidefoots towards the bottom right, but not particularly powerfully, and it’s an easy claim for Fabianski.
14 min: Fredericks is sent scampering down the left at speed. He’s only got Bowen up with him, though, and he’s surrounded by four blue shirts. So Fredericks opts to go it alone instead. His shot from a tight angle is fierce, but always rising over the bar.
13 min: A free kick out on the West Ham right. Bowen swings it into the box. Soucek competes aerially with Christensen but loses out. Chelsea clear their lines. West Ham have worked their way into this match after a cold start.
11 min: West Ham win the first corner of the evening down the right. Bowen takes; Mendy claims easily. It’s slightly surprising that the delivery was so bad: no team has scored more goals from corners this season than West Ham (nine). That’s a record shared by Chelsea, by the way. Plenty of excitement to come this evening from the old set pieces, you’d imagine.
10 min: Up the other end, Mount makes himself some space for a shot just to the right of the D. Fabianski smothers, helped by the fact it was straight at him.
9 min: West Ham surround Chilwell in the centre circle to win the ball. Bowen tears forward with Lingard just to his left. He should release his team-mate, but delays the pass unnecessarily, and when it finally comes, Lingard is offside. A dangerous situation wasted.
7 min: West Ham steady the ship a little, in so much as their high press keeps Chelsea in their own half awhile. But the visitors are still hogging possession.
5 min: Azpilicueta tears down the right and crosses. The ball is spectacularly cleared by the horizontal Ogbonna. It’s a fast start by the visitors. West Ham have hardly had a touch during these opening exchanges.
4 min: Some space for Mount down the right. He cuts back from the byline and finds Werner, who aims a first-time riser towards the top left. Always wide and high, but it was a tricky chance and the build-up was swift and smooth.
2 min: A fairly quiet start on a sunny evening. Chelsea have seen more of the ball.
Chelsea get the ball rolling ... but only after everyone takes a knee of love, solidarity, fairness and respect. There’s no room for racism. Challenge it. Report it. Change it. Kick it out.
The teams are out! West Ham wear their claret , Chelsea their royal blue. We’ll be off in a couple of minutes, after a quick blow of those pretty bubbles.
Moyes has also been talking to Sky Sports. “We’ve got a tough game against a really tough side, but it’s a challenge and we’re going to try to take it on. We want to do well, but there was much more pressure last year than this. But we want to play well and finish on a high. We beat Chelsea here 3-2 last season, probably to stay up, so if we could do that again it’d be very good. Injuries are part and parcel of football at all clubs, but undoubtedly we’re short at this present time. Chelsea look as though they’re playing in a really good style, they’re in the semi-finals of the Champions League and the FA Cup final, they’re not only a top side but a top squad. They’re able to change their players around quite a bit and keep them fresh. But if we play them as well as we did last year, we’ll be happy.”
On the subject of super leagues ... West Ham boss David Moyes has been thinking.
Chelsea honeymooner Thomas Tuchel tells Sky how he put the Super League nonsense to the back of his mind. “We took the normal approach before the game. Me, personally, I switched off all internet around me, no news, no football after the Tuesday game. So totally normal approach. Business as usual. Big game coming up. It’s big but not decisive, and if you see the schedule we have, nothing is decided after this match. But we want the three points. We know how hard it is but we are prepared for that. We have a good record in away matches and we know we have to deliver a top performance.”
West Ham make two changes to the team that lost at Newcastle last weekend. Fabian Balbuena and Ryan Fredericks replace Ben Johnson and the suspended Craig Dawson.
Chelsea make six alterations to the team that drew listlessly with Brighton. Edouard Mendy, Cesar Azpilicueta, Thiago Silva, Ben Chilwell, N’Golo Kante and Timo Werner replace Kepa, Kurt Zouma, Marcos Alonso, Reece James, Hakim Ziyech and Kai Havertz.
West Ham United: Fabianski, Diop, Balbuena, Ogbonna, Coufal, Noble, Soucek, Fredericks, Fornals, Lingard, Bowen.
Subs: Yarmolenko, Benrahma, Lanzini, Alves, Johnson, Trott, Randolph, Odubeko, Coventry.
Chelsea: Mendy, Christensen, Thiago Silva, Rudiger, Azpilicueta, Kante, Jorginho, Chilwell, Mount, Pulisic, Werner.
Subs: Arrizabalaga, Alonso, Abraham, Zouma, Hudson-Odoi, Ziyech, Gilmour, James, Havertz.
Referee: Chris Kavanagh (Lancashire).
Just six games of the season remaining, and a top-four finish within touching distance: it would be a huge match whoever was contesting it. But the participation of West Ham United adds a little extra spice. They were nobody’s pre-season pick for a run at the Champions League places, but look at where the rejuvenated David Moyes has got them. This is on!
They’re good enough to make it … but can they hold their nerve? Tonight’s opponents Chelsea have been around this particular block on many an occasion; this is virgin territory for the Hammers, whose previous high watermark in the top flight was third in pre-Champions League 1986. They lost their last fixture at Newcastle United, were beaten 3-0 by Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in December, and will be without the influential trio of Declan Rice, Michail Antonio and Craig Dawson this evening. On the other hand, Chelsea have a massive Champions League semi against Real Madrid coming up on Tuesday evening, and lost this fixture rather spectacularly last season. So good luck calling this. It’s on!
Kick off: 5.30pm BST.
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