London: Having suffered early-season defeat to West Ham, Chelsea hit back strongly in the return fixture with a 5-0 win at home. It was Chelsea’s second successive London derby victory in three days after beating Tottenham.
Their delighted manager, Mauricio Pochettino, said: “We need to keep this momentum and belief going. It’s step by step but most important is the mentality. Last season was tough and to keep the feelings and performance this season is difficult. We need time for everyone to trust in the process and we have recovered good feelings.”
He added: “The assist from Noni (Madueke) to (Nicolas) Jackson showed we learned, we are smart.”
Referring to the spat between the two players recently on taking a penalty kick. The manager said: “The situation with the penalty against Everton we received a lot of criticism but a young team needs to make mistakes and to improve.
“Today was a great action of Noni to see how the group is starting to live and feel between them. It is a process that takes time, you never know if it will take one month, six months or a year. But they are starting to feel and live like a group of players with links. I am so pleased for that, helping them grow and be mature.”
Chelsea took control of the match early dominating the first half’s play. Their first three goals came as a result of bad defensive errors and unable to deal with the pace of Chelsea’s attackers and their quick crosses.
They shot into lead within 15 minutes from a cross from Madueke which went to Kurt Zouma, off Jackson’s legs, and then fell into Cole Palmer’s path. The Chelsea forward, celebrating his 22nd birthday, promptly sent a firm left-footed shot inside the far post.
West Ham’s Jarrod Bowen was unlucky to have a shot hit the bar almost immediately but on the half-hour Chelsea doubled the lead. Zouma had blocked a shot from Madueke but the ball went to Conor Gallagher who hammered in a right-footed shot.
Chelsea were in total control and their third goal in the 36th minute from a corner. The ball was headed down across the 6-yard box by Thiago Silva and from the bounce an unmarked Madueke swiftly headed in.
Chelsea’s last two goals were scored by Jackson. His first came just three minutes after the break when Trevoh Chalobah put a long ball up-field which Madueke picked up and unselfishly slid to Jackson on his left to tap in.
To add to the Hammers’ embarrassment, with ten minutes remaining and just after West Ham had hit the bar for the third time, Jackson, from a ball from Moises Caicedo and on a one-on-one with the goalkeeper, put a low shot into the net.
West Ham’s manager, David Moyes. said: “Not good, we were lacking toughness, leadership and mental toughness. We’ve had two away games where we’ve conceded five. The manager will always take the responsibility because that’s what you do in this job, you have to prepare them and get them right.”
He added: “Somewhere along the line the players have to take responsibility for doing their jobs, being hard to play against, being aggressive and competitive. I question if we were all that in the first half.”
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