Overview
Chelsea had an impressive performance in the second half at Napoli's stadium in the middle of the week to win a direct ticket to the round of 16 of the UEFA Champions League. This is also the fourth consecutive victory of The Blues under new coach Liam Rosenior.
It is too early to say whether Rosenior has really improved Chelsea or they are just enjoying the positive effect from the coach change. After all, the 41-year-old captain does not have much time on the training ground with the squad. And the match against West Ham will be Chelsea's 10th consecutive match that they have not had a full week of preparation.
Chelsea have won Brentford 2-0 and Crystal Palace 3-1 in the last 2 Premier League matches. The last time they won with a difference of at least 2 goals in 3 consecutive matches in the league was in November 2020.
Even, Rosenior could completely become the fourth English coach to win all 3 of his first 3 matches leading a team in the Premier League, after Bobby Gould (August 1992), Sam Allardyce (August 2001) and Craig Shakespeare (April 2017, 5 matches).
Enzo Fernandez is one of Chelsea's most outstanding players recently. The Argentine midfielder has scored 5 goals and had 2 assists in his last 9 appearances in all competitions, playing in many different roles with high form.
Only Marcos Senesi (26) and Bruno GuimarAes (24) made more breakthrough passes into the opponent's penalty area than Fernandez (23) in the Premier League this season.
On the other side, West Ham is currently in good form when they have won 3 consecutive matches in all competitions for the first time since November 2023. With a whole week to prepare for this match, they are expected to perform well.
Nuno Espirito Santo's team is still rated by Opta supercomputer as having the highest risk of relegation, with a prediction of 81.8% of their chances of playing in the Championship. However, if they take advantage of the advantage against a Chelsea that is overloaded with schedules, West Ham can put significant pressure on teams like Nottingham Forest and Leeds United ranked above.
However, there are clear signs that Nuno can still lead the relegation team. The victories in the league against Tottenham and Sunderland are the first time they have won 2 consecutive matches since December 2023 under David Moyes.
This is also the same number of wins as the number of wins they achieved in the previous 18 matches in the Premier League.
Some players such as Jarrod Bowen, Mateus Fernandes and Tomas Soucek have played very well in recent weeks for West Ham, but the truly outstanding name is Crysencio Summerville.
The Dutch winger has opened the scoring in West Ham's last 3 matches in all competitions. He has also scored more goals in the last 2 Premier League matches for the club (2) compared to the first 35 matches (1).
One player who will not participate in this match is Lucas Paqueta, who is on his way back to Brazil to play for Flamengo. James Ward-Prowse has also left the team to join Burnley on loan.
Head-to-head record
Chelsea have defeated West Ham in their last four Premier League encounters with a total score of 15-2. This is their longest winning streak against West Ham since the 6-game winning streak from 2006 to 2008.
West Ham have only won one of their last 19 away games against Chelsea in the Premier League, and have lost 5 consecutive matches since the 1-0 victory in November 2019.
Score prediction: Chelsea 2-0 West Ham
The match between Chelsea and West Ham takes place at 0:30 AM on February 1st (Vietnam time).
