The Blues switched off to gift West Ham an equaliser (Pictures: BT Sport / Getty)
Rio Ferdinand says Graham Potter will be ‘seething’ with Chelsea’s defending for West Ham’s first-half equaliser, with Joe Cole criticising the roles of Marc Cucurella and Mykhailo Mudryk in the build-up.
The Blues started Saturday’s contest really well and took a deserved lead when Premier League record signing Enzo Fernandez dinked a perfect cross into the box for Joao Felix to tap home calmly.
Chelsea threatened to run away with the contest after that, ripping through West Ham’s high defensive line, and thought they had netted a second goal only for the offside flag to deny Kai Havertz.
But just when West Ham appeared to be on the ropes, a hopeful cross into the box evaded all of Chelsea’s defenders and was tapped in by ex-Blue Emerson Palmieri at the far post.
Although Reece James did not track his former team-mate’s run, Cole felt the responsibility predominantly lay with Chelsea’s left flank – of Cucurella and Mudryk – who did not apply enough pressure to Vladimir Coufal.
‘It shows you when you’re in the ascendency you’ve got to score goals and West Ham got back into it,’ said former Chelsea winger Cole on BT Sport at half-time.
‘It’s a good goal from West Ham but bad defending. First of all as Coufal just delivers it, that’s too much space.
Coufal was given far too much time and space to cross (Picture: BT Sport)
‘But then at the far post, Reece James and Thiago Silva just switch off and Emerson comes in and scuffs it in.
‘Cucurella has got to say to Mudryk, “You get there” and if he can’t get there, Cucurella has to get there. If he’s not there, he has to retreat into the space and deal with Bowen.
‘And as the cross comes in Reece James just takes his eye off the ball and Emerson is at the far post. It’s those details in football, and then it’s 1-1.
‘At that point in the game, West Ham were looking like they were saying, “How many are we going to stop the score being?” But one bit of quality and they got in and it’s 1-1.’
Fellow pundit Ferdinand agreed with Cole’s assessment, saying: ‘I think Potter will be sitting in there [the dressing room] seething. I think he’ll be going through a few players there.
‘They really dominated the early stages. You should be putting teams to bed the way they were so dominant, but they allowed West Ham the chance to come back into the game.’
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The Blues switched off to gift West Ham an equaliser.
