It was another stalemate for Graham Potter’s Chelsea in league football with the Blues held to a 1-1 draw on their trip to West Ham United on Saturday.
MATCH PROCEEDINGS
The visitors got the game underway on the front foot and the returning Joao Felix nearly opened the scoring early on but his strike was ruled out for offside.
West Ham were dealt an injury setback with record signing Lucas Paqueta limping off and to make matters worse for the home side, Chelsea drew first blood with new signings Enzo Fernandez and Felix combining for the latter to find the back of the net.
The offside flag again curtailed Chelsea’s lead after Kai Havertz thought he had doubled the tally for his side with the Blues on top in the opening exchanges of the derby.
West Ham, however, got back in the game and it was the former Chelsea wing-back Emerson Palmeiri who scored on the rebound after Kepa had denied Michail Antonio’s backheel.
The second period saw both sides push for the second goal to take the lead with West Ham looking more dangerous of the two teams on the counter attack.
Tomas Soucek found the back of the net with just 10 minutes left to play for but a VAR check chalked off a second goal for the Hammers who were granted a reprieve when Soucek appeared to have handled the ball inside the box and the video assistant did not overturn the decision.
