Nicolas Jackson scored twice to help Chelsea make it a third straight away win with a 3-0 victory at London rivals West Ham United on Saturday, suggesting new manager Enzo Maresca is bringing his huge squad together well.
Jackson took advantage of the weak defense and scored in the fourth minute: he sprinted down the wing, cut unhindered inside and beat Alphonse Areola with a low shot.
Fourteen minutes later, the Senegalese striker was freed by West Ham’s defenders and received a pass from Moisés Caicedo, who doubled Chelsea’s lead.
West Ham were 3-0 down just over a minute into the second half when Jackson counterattacked and passed the ball to Cole Palmer, who the England striker fired home from the edge of the box.
Chelsea, who won 1-0 at Bournemouth last Saturday and 6-2 at Wolverhampton Wanderers in August, moved up to second place in the Premier League table ahead of the weekend’s remaining games.
Maresca is the fourth permanent manager to work for Chelsea’s American owners since they bought the club two years ago, but after a recent spate of signings, his ability to build a cohesive team has been called into question.
At the London Stadium on Saturday, he started Jadon Sancho in attack and Tosin Adarabioyo in defence for the first time, and Wesley Fofana played in the unusual position of right-back due to injuries to Reece James and Malo Gusto.
However, Chelsea did not let the restructuring unsettle them and took full advantage of West Ham’s adjustment period under new coach Julen Lopetegui.
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Maresca played down claims that Chelsea had endured two disappointing seasons, finishing sixth and 12th in the Premier League, despite becoming the first manager since Pep Guardiola, who achieved the same feat at Manchester City in 2016, to win his first three away games in the Premier League.
“I think we are improving in many things. Today we could have attacked better and defended better,” he told reporters. “Above all, we could have managed the game much, much better… But overall I think we deserved the win.”
There were boos from the home fans at half-time and also when Lopetegui replaced winger Crysencio Summerville – who provided much-needed momentum in his first appearance for the Hammers – with Michail Antonio in the second half.
The hosts were denied a penalty after Summerville went down in a tussle with Fofana on the half-hour mark, but Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sánchez was not seriously threatened.
West Ham have won just one of their first five league games of the season.
“We were never in the game and that’s a terrible thing to say,” West Ham captain Jarrod Bowen told TNT Sports after the game.
“The goals they scored were easy for us – two gifts. You have to be fully there at every moment. It was pretty easy to play against us on the pitch,” he said. “All in all, a disappointing day.”
