West Ham’s U21 side remained resilient and secured yet another win beating Chelsea 3-2 at the Rush Green Stadium. The Hammers are now top of the PL2 table, going ahead of Arsenal who they were level on points with prior to kick off. The London derby win also sees the Hammers continue their unbeaten start to the league season making it five wins from five games.
The match began at a fast pace with chances for both sides early on. Just five minutes in, Emeka Adiele took full advantage of Chelsea’s high line. Meeting an excellent ball over the top from Ezra Myers, Adiele breezed past his marker and fired home past Chelsea keeper Max Merrick to put West Ham in front.
Chelsea responded by trying to put West Ham under pressure but struggled to break through their defence. Although the Blues had a lot of the ball, they were not able to convert any of their opportunities early in the first half.
With just over 10 minutes to play in the first half, West Ham scored a second. Similar to the first goal, Adiele found space in behind Chelsea’s high line. Tyron Akpata’s ball found the wing back who lifted his finish over Max Merrick to score his second of the game. After Kamarai Swyer missed a great chance to score a third for the Hammers, Chelsea made them pay and found a way back into the game. Donnel McNeilly headed home from a corner to make it 2-1 on the stroke of half time.
In the second half, West Ham came out on the front foot and quickly found a third goal. Lewis Orford played a through ball to Sean Moore, the winger cut inside onto his preferred left foot and finished coolly beyond the keeper to make it 3-1. The young Hammers side did have chances to extend their lead further which they were unable to convert.
Chelsea found a late goal thanks to their captain Harvey Vale who made it 3-2 and set up a nervy last few minutes for West Ham. Despite Chelsea piling on the pressure and 10 minutes of added time, the Hammers dug in, remained resolute and saw the game out to make it five wins from five and continue their perfect start to the season.
Speaking to the Club’s Official Website after the game, U21’s lead coach Mark Robson said: “It was a really hard working display and from a defensive perspective, it was a big learning curve. The boys dug right in. It wasn’t the perfect game, but sometimes you have to adapt. We always try to stick to our principles, organisation, and discipline, but when you face a team that likes to control possession, you need to adjust your approach and I thought we did that really well. I don’t recall Fin Herrick having much to do in the second half. It was pretty routine, they didn’t really hurt us, and we always knew we could catch them out on the counter attack.”
