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West Ham Stun Chelsea

EPL: Week 2 Preview

An early strike from Marko Arnautovic was all West Ham needed to beat Chelsea 1-0 at the Olympic Stadium on Saturday afternoon as David Moyes registered his first win.

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Arnautovic gave West Ham an early lead after he combined well with Manuel Lanzini before remaining composed to slot home into the bottom left corner.

Alvaro Morata almost bagged a late equalizer when N’Golo Kante set him up behind the Hammers defence, but the Spaniard flashed his first-time effort wide of the post.

Full report

The Hammers had the perfect start to the match when Arnautovic gave them an early lead. After Michail Antonio did well to find the striker, Arnautovic played a good give-and-go with Lanzini before curling in an effort past both Cesar Azpilicueta and Thibaut Courtois.

Chelsea thought they had a penalty 10 minutes later when Morata went down in the danger area after a tussle with Winston Reid, but referee Anthony Taylor did not see enough in the challenge to point to the spot.

Adrian then justified his selection ahead of Joe Hart when he produced a double save on the half hour mark, keeping out Kante before managing to push away a powerful Davide Zappacosta shot.

West Ham enjoyed a good spell of possession towards the end of the half as they easily passed around the Chelsea midfield but could not create any more chances before entering the change room with the goal advantage. 

The second half brought an early change from Antonio Conte as he looked to bolster his attacking options by introducing Pedro in the place of Tiemoue Bakayoko.

A fantastic break from West Ham came when a bad pass from Gary Cahill gave Antonio a chance to surge through the centre of the park with Arnautovic just ahead of him, but the midfielder mis-timed his pass which saw Arnautovic flagged for offside.

The home side then had a big penalty appeal when Andreas Christensen handled the ball in the box. Arnautovic tried to cut inside the box from the left-hand side, which saw the ball collide with the trailing arm of the Chelsea defender, but Taylor was unmoved as he saw it as unintentional.

As the game entered the final 10 minutes, Morata flashed a shot wide of the net after being played behind the West ham defence by Kante, and just seconds later, Eden Hazard fired an effort wide from the top of the box.

It was a fantastic effort from the Hammers as they secured their most important win of the season and the a first under David Moyes, although they still find themselves in the bottom three, ahead of Crystal Palace and Swansea.

© TEAMtalk Media

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