Chelsea vs West Ham: Player ratings, analysis and reaction as Christian Pulisic scores late on

STAMFORD BRIDGE –– David Moyes might not have expected to be resting players with a European engagement in mind in this late in April, yet a depleted West Ham United came, competed and almost nicked a worthy draw at Stamford Bridge against a Chelsea side who laboured hard before finally winning it with a 90th minute goal from the substitute Christian Pulisic.

West Ham thought they had been reprieved when Lukasz Fabianski saved Jorginho’s weak penalty minutes earlier, that after Craig Dawson had been red carded for bringing down Romelu Lukaku inside the box.

It was tough on the visitors, for whom an eye on Thursday’s Europa League semi-final meeting with Frankfurt was entirely excusable.

Yet Moyes will feel his team had done enough to earn a draw before Pulisic stroked home the winner at the death from Marcos Alonso’s cut-back.

West Ham’s manager had made his mind up that Europe would take precedence over shoring up a league placing that has suffered after just four wins in the last 12.

Jarrod Bowen and Declan Rice were amongst five players dropped to the bench with Moyes placing European glory before his side’s diminishing hopes of breaking into the top four.

West Ham did most of the defending in the first half but they were allowed to do so with relative ease. Chelsea, strangely gun shy in the opening period, sought precision through-balls and whipped-in crosses, but Fabianski’s only real job was marshalling the rhythms of West Ham’s defence.

Ruben-Loftus Cheek epitomised Chelsea’s puzzling toothlessness late in the first half when, after the ball had been painstakingly worked to him out wide, he rolled the ball straight into the goalkeeper’s grateful arms with a penalty area teeming with expectant blue shirts.

Timo Werner nearly got Chelsea off to a flyer after the break, his 12-yard volley was thwarted by a superb diving block from Craig Dawson At the other end, Andriy Yarmolenko burst into Chelsea’s penalty area down the right but couldn’t place his low drive beyond Mendy.

Then finally the late drama for which the game will be remembered. West Ham were congratulating themselves on a point well-earned after Fabianski’s penalty heroics when their defence was caught out by a through-ball that allowed Alonso to race to the byline, and as the defence scrambled to cover no one picked up Pulisic who strode onto the ball to seal Chelsea’s win.

Chelsea (3-4-1-2): E Mendy 7 – C Azpilicueta 6, Tiago Silva 6, T Chalobah 6 – R Loftus-Cheek 5 (H Ziyech 76), N Kante 7, Jorginho 6, M Alonso 7 – M Mount 7 – K Havertz 7 (C Pulisic 76), T Werner 7 (R Lukaku 76)

West Ham United (3-4-2-1): L Fabianski 8 – B Johnson 7, C Dawson 7, A Creswell 7 – V Coufal 7, T Soucek 6, M Noble 6 (D Rice 62), Masuaku 6 – A Yarmolenko 8 (J Bowen 73), P Fornals 7 – S Benrahma 8 (M Lanzini 78)

Referee: Michael Oliver