West Ham United 3 Chelsea 1

[My Blood Is Blue]

Please use this thread for all posts relating to our Premier League match against West Ham United at the London Stadium before, during and after the game.

The match is scheduled to kick off at 16:30 hours on Sunday, 20th August 2023 (Local UK time/date) (Live on Sky Sports)

[Miguelito07]

Caicedo and Enzo in the middle for this one? (or too soon for Caicedo)

[Thiago97]

21 hours ago, Miguelito07 said:

Caicedo and Enzo in the middle for this one? (or too soon for Caicedo)

I would expect he will play. I get he has not had a pre-season involving many games, but the lad is as fit as they come in the PL. These are exactly the type of games where we need his running power and steel in midfield.

                                                                         Sanchez

                                             James      Silva  Colwill    Chilwell

                                                                 Enzo Caicedo

                                                Sterling  Chukwuemka Mudryk

                                                                    Jackson

[xceleryx]

27 minutes ago, Thiago97 said:

I would expect he will play. I get he has not had a pre-season involving many games, but the lad is as fit as they come in the PL. These are exactly the type of games where we need his running power and steel in midfield.

                                                                         Sanchez

                                             James      Silva  Colwill    Chilwell

                                                                 Enzo Caicedo

                                                Sterling  Chukwuemka Mudryk

                                                                    Jackson

Drop Chukwuemeka for Gallagher and that'll do me nicely.

[Miguelito07]

1 hour ago, xceleryx said:

Drop Chukwuemeka for Gallagher and that'll do me nicely.

Will Gallagher play against his new team.......;) 

[Holymoly]

4 hours ago, xceleryx said:

Drop Chukwuemeka for Gallagher and that'll do me nicely.

To be honest I'd drop Sterling before Chukwuemeka as he's already had his half decent (albeit entirely ineffective) performance for the month.

[paulw66]

Caicedo surely plays. 

Actually looking forward to the game, rather than looking ahead with dread.

[Ham]

Possibly replacing Gallagher with Lavia if he's fit and trains well..... 

[JaneB]

Referee:  John Brooks

VAR:  Paul Tierney

[My Blood Is Blue]

On 15/08/2023 at 21:47, Ham said:

Possibly replacing Gallagher with Lavia if he's fit and trains well..... 

I’d go for the same, I think Gallagher should start regardless, he had a good second half and deserves another go in the CM role, especially alongside Caicedo.

I really want to see Enzo in that advanced position, we saw glimpses of it vs Liverpool and although he may end up with less of the ball he’ll be able to create many more chances from there.

[boratsbrother]

Stating the obvious here, but until we starting creating more clear cut chances and score more goals, much like last season,  every game will be a dificult one for us. I see this being another draw, probably the same score as last week too.

[Ham]

3 minutes ago, boratsbrother said:

Stating the obvious here, but until we starting creating more clear cut chances and score more goals, much like last season,  every game will be a dificult one for us. I see this being another draw, probably the same score as last week too.

Funny because I see us hammering them.  Excuse the pun. 

[boratsbrother]

2 minutes ago, Ham said:

Funny because I see us hammering them.  Excuse the pun. 

Sincerely hope so!  But who's going to create all the chances and who's going to put them away ?

[Ham]

6 minutes ago, boratsbrother said:

Sincerely hope so!  But who's going to create all the chances and who's going to put them away ?

We're well set up to score goals as long as Jackson stays fit. 

Plenty of creativity in our match day squad.  

[paulw66]

1 hour ago, boratsbrother said:

Sincerely hope so!  But who's going to create all the chances and who's going to put them away ?

I think the plan is to return to a back 4, now that the DM has been sorted. That means you are playing with an extra forward player (versus last week)

Enzo will be pulling the strings.......just need to work on that finishing!

[Ham]

In light of the potential signing of Lavia and the RJ news....

[Sleeping Dave]

Too soon for Caicedo (also apparently having a slight hamstring issue?) to start I reckon and Lavia will perhaps not even be on the bench for this one. But as we have so many injuries perhaps he will. 

I’d have played a 433 like so;

                         Sanchez

Gusto - Disasi - Silva - Chilwell

                   Enzo - Gallagher

                   Chukwuemeka

      Sterling - Jackson - Mudryk

Subs: Bergström, Colwill, Cucurella, Santos, Lavia, Ugochukwu, Maatsen, Madueke, Burstow

As it stands, we don’t even have 9 subs in the first team! 

Wont be involved: Lukaku, Sarr, Ziyech, Hudson-Odoi, Hall

Injured: Broja, Badiashile, Nkunku, Bettinelli, Caicedo, Chalobah, Fofana

Looking at this, we are well stocked at CB and CM but one player short for the wing and striker positions IMO. 

[Mark Kelly]

Caicedo with a hamstring injury, but of course. 

[chara]

5 minutes ago, Mark Kelly said:

Caicedo with a hamstring injury, but of course. 

Didn't see that coming.......

[Ham]

10 minutes ago, Mark Kelly said:

Caicedo with a hamstring injury, but of course. 

That was his excuse for not playing last weekend for Brighton.  Not sure it's necessarily true. 

[boratsbrother]

I'm going to ask my brother to send a bottle of his gypsy tears to Stamford Bridge 

[chrisb]

27 minutes ago, boratsbrother said:

I'm going to ask my brother to send a bottle of his gypsy tears to Stamford Bridge 

Hopefully there’ll be shit loads of them in Stratford on Sunday afternoon.

[Mark Kelly]

1 hour ago, Ham said:

That was his excuse for not playing last weekend for Brighton.  Not sure it's necessarily true. 

I bloody hope it isnt

[Miguelito07]

13 hours ago, Mark Kelly said:

I bloody hope it isnt

There are training videos of him on the Chelsea FC website. Surely he plays

[Gurj SS]

I'd like to see:

Sanchez;

Gusto, Disasi, Silva, Chilly;

Caicedo;

Gallagher, Enzo;

Madueke, Jackson, Mudryk;

 

Time to ditch the double pivot, no need for it when someone like Caicedo is the DM; Gallagher and Enzo have just as strong engines as Caicedo so they can go box to box without any trouble. It would also mean there's no need to over commit the fullbacks and they can time when to join an attack as an element of surprise, and also the CBs don't need to keep coming across into areas they shouldn't be needing to go into. A system like Jose played when we had Maka, Essien and Lamps; Caicedo/Lavia do the Maka role, Gallagher/Caicedo do the Essien role, Enzo/Chukwuemeka do the  Lamps role. This allows 3 proper attackers who enjoy running at a defence to play, and take risks on the ball with enough cover/support/creativity behind them.

Edited August 18, 2023 by Gurj SS