Trailing 1-0 after six minutes and with Cole Palmer having withdrawn from the starting line-up during the warm-up, Chelsea could have crumbled in the circumstances.
That was the pessimistic way of looking at their particular predicament.
The optimistic view was that this represented an opportunity to show why they do not deserve that ‘Cole Palmer FC’ tag with which they have long been lumbered.
It was in the 58th minute when Chelsea took their 5-1 lead courtesy of fifth different scorer at the London Stadium, but in truth, we had our answer long before goal number five.
They can win without Palmer. They can score for fun. They can give teams a torrid time even if the 23-year-old Englishman is struck by sudden tightness of the groin in the warm-up and has to head down the tunnel earlier than everyone else with the club’s fitness coach Marcos Alvarez.
Of course there should be a West Ham caveat here, what with them looking like a side ripe for a relegation scrap. ‘There’s only one Graham Potter,’ sang the Chelsea supporters here if only to try to inject some atmosphere into what was a soulless London Stadium.
Cole Palmer’s late withdrawal from Chelsea’s starting line-up posed a huge test for the Blues
Palmer, Chelsea’s most influential player of the past two seasons, left the team’s warm up
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But Enzo Maresca’s side showed, in spite of their opponents’ overwhelming ineptitude, how they are not reliant on one man only. Like it or not, they are a team.
Daily Mail Sport put this question to Maresca after their victory and Chelsea’s head coach replied: ‘You know already how I feel. I don’t care. The ones that say we are just a “Cole team”… for sure, Cole is our best player, no doubt. When we have Cole, we are a much, much, much better team. But we already showed last year, in the months where Cole was not 100 per cent, when we achieved top four.’
When the line-ups were announced at 6.45pm, Chelsea’s XI showed them as having Palmer at No 10, Pedro Neto on the right, Joao Pedro on the left, and Liam Delap as the striker.
Palmer’s sudden withdrawal at 7.40pm sparked a rapid reshuffle.
In came Estevao Willian but the 18-year-old Brazilian did not go to No 10. That went to Joao Pedro as Neto switched to the left and Estevao started on the right. Delap was the only one out of Chelsea’s attackers whose position did not change.
Estevao was a pleasure to watch, so energetic, so entertaining, so effective as he became the youngest player in Premier League history to register an assist for Chelsea.
He was this game’s best player by the selectors at Sky Sports, but the way in which Joao Pedro took to the No 10 role with ease should be praised also.
Chelsea are used to having the Mickey taken out of them for how often they sign someone from Brighton. The Seagulls’ own chief executive Paul Barber likes to refer to them as their ‘best customer’.
But the Blues proved they are more than just a one-man team with a thumping win on Friday
Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca will be delighted with the options at his disposal without Palmer
But then Marc Cucurella has not been a bad buy, and nor has Moises Caicedo. Though Robert Sanchez is not the Premier League’s greatest at passing, you can find worse goalkeepers, as West Ham fans might attest with Mads Hermansen after this performance.
In Joao Pedro, Chelsea appear to be on to another winner. He was much more effective playing in a deeper position than when he was when used as a striker in last weekend’s 0-0 draw with Crystal Palace. He scored once, assisted twice, and looked like £55million well spent.
In truth, the Palmer accusations aimed at Chelsea never properly stood up. Sure, he turns it on when needed. In the Club World Cup final versus Paris Saint-Germain, for example, and the Conference League showdown with Real Betis.
But Palmer had not scored from open play in the Premier League since a 2-2 draw with Bournemouth in January, anyway. It hardly made much sense that they did not know how to win without him getting in on the goals.
All Chelsea can do is use chances like this trip to West Ham to shove those ‘Cole Palmer FC’ jibes back at the ones making them. They did precisely that here.
