West Ham United claimed the bragging rights in the London derby after they secured a 3-1 victory over Chelsea at the London Stadium on Sunday evening.
After drawing 1-1 with Liverpool last weekend, Pochettino’s team threw away a good game at the London Stadium by not defending well and not scoring enough goals.
After halftime, Antonio scored the game-winning goal for West Ham, and Lucas Paqueta scored a late penalty to make it 2-0. Pochettino is still looking for his first Premier League win since taking over in the offseason.
Carney Chukwuemeka, a young player for Chelsea, scored an eye-catching equaliser in the first half to cancel out West Ham’s early goal by Nayef Aguerd.
But the game changed when Alphonse Areola saved Fernandez’s penalty just before halftime.
Antonio scored soon after halftime, and Chelsea couldn’t come back even though Aguerd was sent off for a second yellow card in the middle of the second half.
In the last few seconds, Paqueta delivered the knockout blow. He is reportedly being looked into by the FA for betting violations.
Since last season, Chelsea has only won five of 31 league games, and in their last 14 top-flight games, they have only won once, at Bournemouth in May.
They have also lost four top-flight London games in a row, which hasn’t happened since 1990.
Most of the blame for these bad numbers goes to Pochettino’s predecessors Graham Potter and Frank Lampard, who struggled through a rough season that ended with Chelsea’s worst finish since 1996.
Pochettino’s job is to clean up the mess, but despite the recent signings of Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia, which bring Chelsea’s total spending under owner Todd Boehly to more than £850 million ($1.08 billion), the team is still a work in progress.
Pochettino is taking a risk by putting his faith in a team that is mostly made up of young people. His team’s lack of experience became clear in the seventh minute.
The corner kick from James Ward-Prowse was sent to the far post, where Morocco defender Aguerd easily got past Conor Gallagher and Chukwuemeka to head the ball in from six yards out.
Since his first game in the Premier League in 2012, Ward-Prowse has set up 25 goals. Only Christian Eriksen has done more in the same time period.
After that setback, Chelsea dominated possession, so it was only fair that they tied the game in the 28th minute.
Kurt Zouma made a bad clearance, and Chukwuemeka moved the ball away from Tomas Soucek before smashing a great shot from 12 yards into the far corner.
It was Chukwuemeka’s first goal in the Premier League. The 19-year-old midfielder was signed by Chelsea from Aston Villa last year because of his potential.
Chelsea was in charge, and Soucek’s bad tackle on Raheem Sterling, who was making a strong run, gave Chelsea a penalty in the 42nd minute.
But Areola made a great save on Fernandez’s shaky penalty kick by diving to his right. This kept the Argentine midfielder from scoring his first goal for Chelsea.
The Blues took another hit when Chukwuemeka left on a limp at the end of the first half.
Antonio only touched the ball five times in the first half, but when he did, in the 53rd minute, the West Ham striker made the most of it.
Antonio pushed around Chelsea defenders Levi Colwill and Axel Disasi. He took a pass from Ward-Prowse and used his strength to get into position for a fierce shot from the edge of the area that beat Sanchez.
Ecuadorian midfielder Caicedo made his Chelsea debut an hour into the game. He had just moved there from Brighton for a British record fee of £115 million ($146 million).
Caicedo’s first touch as a Chelsea player was a long-range shot that went wide.
Aguerd’s red card in the 67th minute, which he got for a stupid second booking when he tripped Nicolas Jackson, gave Chelsea a chance to win.
But the visitors had a hard time coming back, and Caicedo’s debut was ruined when he fouled Emerson in stoppage time, giving Paqueta a penalty that he shot past Sanchez.
