Chelsea’s Jackson capitalised on poor defending to find the net when he sprinted down the wing in the fourth and 18th minute. A little over a minute into the second half, West Ham found themselves behind 3-0. Just at exactly when Jackson set up Cole Palmer for an easy finish from the edge of the box.
Fourteen minutes later, the Senegal striker was left in space by West Ham’s defenders to receive a pass from Moisés Caicedo. This doubled Chelsea’s lead. Chelsea, who won 1-0 at Bournemouth last Saturday, and 6-2 at Wolverhampton Wanderers in August, has now climbed to second position in the Premier League rankings.
Maresca, the fourth permanent coach, has been questioned about his capacity to build a cohesive team following a recent wave of arrivals.
Earlier today at the London Stadium, he started Jadon Sancho in attack and Tosin Adarabioyo in defence. He also played Wesley Fofana in the uncommon position of right back. This is owing to injuries to Reece James and Malo Gusto.
However, the reshuffle did not derail Chelsea. They took full advantage of West Ham’s own adjustment to life under new coach Julen Lopetegui.
Maresca told reporters: “I think we are improving in many things. Today we could attack better, we could defend better. Especially we could manage the game much, much better… But overall I think we deserved to win the game.”
The hosts had a penalty claim denied after Summerville went down in a tangle with Fofana after half an hour. However, they did not seriously threaten Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sánchez.
West Ham have won only one of their first five league games of the season. “We were never in the game which is an awful thing to say.” West Ham captain Jarrod Bowen told TNT Sports postmatch.
“The goals that they scored were easy on our part – two gifts. You have to be switched on in every moment. On the pitch it felt quite easy to play through (us), a disappointing day all-round.”
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