Preview
A well managed and developed West Ham side travel to Stamford Bridge this week to certainly give Chelsea a run for their money.
After the disappointment of last week Chelsea’s only fixtures remaining will be in the Premier League. With Champions League football all but mathematically confirmed to be out of reach, Chelsea’s target will now be to qualify for the Europa League. However qualifying for this competition can have its negative effects as statistics in the past have shown teams league form has been hindered when their side have been in the competition. With Chelsea having to rebuild next season in order to get back to where we belong this could be made a whole lot harder.
This season Slaven Bilic’s side have been a revelation and currently look strong contenders for Champions League football. The Hammers are 2 points behind Man City in 4th. With it being their last season at Upton Park, they will be determined to end the season as strong as possible.
West Ham’s best player this season has certainly been Dimitri Payet and tomorrow Chelsea will have to be on their game to stop him from having an impact on the result.
Last week Chelsea were woeful and lacked fight in both the Champions League and FA Cup. The squad certainly need to rediscover that tomorrow and up their performance in order to get a result. A London Derby could be the exact game to do that.
Against Everton Chelsea failed to create many chances of good quality going forward and if that is to happen again tomorrow it is likely West Ham will be taking 3 points back to East London. Bilic’s side certainly aren’t afraid to attack away from home after claiming league wins at The Emirates, Anfield and Etihad Stadium so far this season.
Come on Chelsea!
Match Details
Saturday, 19th March, kick off at 3:00pm (UK Time) at Stamford Bridge.
Recent Form
Chelsea’s form has slumped a bit in recent games after the Blues have failed to win in 3 games. In our last 5 matches we have won 2 (Southampton and Norwich), drawn 1 (Stoke) and lost 2 (PSG and Everton).
Whereas West Ham’s form is considerably better after their last loss came 8 games ago at the start of February. In their last 5 games they have won 4 (Blackburn, Sunderland, Tottenham and Everton) and drawn 1 which came in the FA Cup last week at Old Trafford.
Team News
In the early afternoon of today Guus Hiddink reported that Eden Hazard will miss this weekends match and he was also been dropped out of the Belgium squad for the upcoming friendlies after Marc Wilmott’s confirmed the winger could miss up to 3 or 4 weeks.
Diego Costa is also suspended for the game tomorrow after receiving a red card for two bookable offences at Everton. It doesn’t get much better for the striker either after the FA charged him for improper conduct vs Everton in which he awaiting his punishment. However the FA won’t be charging him for the gesture he made towards Everton supporters at half time after considering his evidence. But Guus Hiddink did confirm he has a small tendon problem in his hip so with this and his potential suspension it looks unlikely that he will make Aston Villa away at this stage.
However Guus Hiddink did confirm better news in the fact that Radamel Falcao is back from injury and should be fit to play after the international break.
