League leaders Chelsea suffered just their second Premier League defeat of the season, as West Ham United came from behind to secure a 3-2 victory in an entertaining encounter at the London Stadium on Saturday.
After a lively start to proceedings, it was the visitors who made the breakthrough midway through the first-half, veteran defender Thiago Silva rising highest to expertly nod home from Mason Mount’s corner.
The Brazilian then proved pivotal at the other end after clearing Vladimir Coufal’s effort off the line, before the hosts were effectively gifted a route back into the match following a rare error from Edouard Mendy, the Senegal stopper clumsily bringing down Jarrod Bowen inside the area after failing to clear his lines.
Manuel Lanzini duly converted from the spot on what was his first league start of the season, although the Hammers would only be level for a matter of minutes before Mount restored the European champions’ lead just before the break with an exquisite side-footed volley at the back post.
In an end to end encounter, David Moyes’ side then struck back not long after the half-time interval through the lively Bowen, the former Hull City man lashing home superbly from just outside the area as Chelsea conceded twice for the first time this season.
The winger came close to adding a second soon after, yet couldn’t quite direct his sliding effort on target, while at the other end the league leaders continued to probe for a third, though without creating too much in the way of clearcut openings.
Heading into the final few minutes, however, it was the home side who snatched all three points in somewhat bizarre fashion, substitute Arthur Masuaka seeing his attempted cross from the left flank catch out Mendy at the near post to send the London Stadium into raptures.
What have we just witnessed?! 😲
Extraordinary from Arthur Masuaku!
David Moyes loves it! 😅 pic.twitter.com/7GsyCfo6x7
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) December 4, 2021
Following that rare slip up – which opens the door to their title challengers – Thomas Tuchel admitted that his side’s ‘individiual mistakes’ ultimately proved costly.
“I don’t think we did a bad match, it was OK, we can win with this performance,” he told BT Sport.
“It is tough to play here, we did too many individual mistakes, we did already against Manchester United and Watford and got punished – if you want a result at this level you have to minimise mistakes. We talked about it before, it’s obviously not helped.”
While it was the usually reliable Mendy that was ultimately responsible for giving away the penalty, the German pointed to a catalogue of errors that lead to the eventual infringement.
“Everybody is involved, the pass is not the best decision, the orientation is not the best, we can save it but the decision-making is also not the best from Edu in this moment.
“We created a lot of half chances, a lot of touches in the box, but sometimes you need a bit of luck, a deflected shot or loose ball that falls to our feet. Their third one is a strange one, the two big chances they had in the first half were our mistakes.
“We could not finish it with clear and better chances, be more ruthless, we struggled also in defending some situations.
“Every loss is a bump in the road, that will not hold us back from what we demand from us but we need to play more accurate, more stable and reduce big mistakes.”
Chelsea are next in action away at Zenit St.Petersburg in the Champions League, before they take on Leeds United at home next Saturday.
