By Victor Kanayo
Biggest spenders during the 2022 summer transfer, Chelsea, returned to winning ways on one matchday 5 of the 2022/23 football league season on Saturday September 3, 2022.
Kai Havertz had to came off the bench to secure the much needed victory for the blues in a keenly contested game against West Ham at the Stamford Bridge.
The Hammers had made the game a tough duel for Chelsea in the first half that saw no shot on target from the home side.
The early returns had been mixed as Chelsea crashed to defeats against Leeds and Southampton.
So when Michail Antonio gave West Ham a shock 62nd minute lead with a close-range finish, the critics were sharpening their knives at Stamford Bridge.
But Ben Chilwell equalised in the 76th minute, just three minutes after the England left-back replaced Marc Cucurella.
Chilwell headed Thiago Silva’s lofted ball past his marker, spun around and poked his shot through Lukasz Fabianski’s legs from a tight angle.
Kai Havertz cleverly finished off Chilwell’s cross to complete Chelsea’s escape in the 88th minute of a thrilling finale.
There was still more drama as Maxwel Cornet appeared to equalise in stoppage-time, only for the goal to be controversially disallowed by VAR for Jarrod Bowen’s foul on Mendy.
Thomas Tuchel’s side remain unconvincing but they are up to fifth place after their third win in six games, while West Ham boss David Moyes was livid with the officials for denying his team a point.
They will now go ahead to break the deadlock in the 62nd minute via a Michaill Antonio close-range effort that beat Eduaord Mendy to send shivers down the spine of Chelsea fans at the Bridge.
Chelsea kept pressing on to get a goal, and then broke even in the 72nd minute thanks to substitute Ben Chilwell who had to slot in the ball from a tight angle shortly after coming off the bench.
Chilwell then came up again in the 88th minute to set up a fine pass for Kai Havertz to put past Fabianski to send the crowd at the Stamford Bridge in wild jubilation.
The drama of the game played out in the 90th minute when Maxwell Corney scored an equalizer but got ruled out after the referee consulted VAR and spotted a foul on Mendy prior to the goal.
Chelsea have now moved to fifth place with 10 points from six games.
Other early evening results from Matchday six saw Tottenham defeat Fulham by 2-1 at the White Hart Lane, Bournemouth coming from behind to defeat Nottingham Forest by 3-2, Brentford defeated Leeds by 5-2 and Wolves pipped Southampton 1-0.
Earlier Liverpool and Everton settled for a goalless draw in what was an eventful lunch time kick-off at Goodison Park with Nigeria’s Super Eagles star Alex Iwobi dazzling superb.
In the thick of the action, there was more VAR intrigue as Conor Coady thought he had put Everton ahead with a close-range finish from Neal Maupay’s shot in the second half.
But Coady’s goal was correctly disallowed for offside after a VAR check.
There could easily have been goals aplenty but for a man of the match display from Pickford and some fine stops from his Liverpool counterpart Alisson Becker.
Everton are now without a victory in their first six games this term, while Liverpool’s momentum was checked after winning their previous two matches.
