west ham 1-3

Independent:

Rafa Benitez is hammered by foes and fans alike
West Ham United 3 Chelsea 1

Steve Tongue Upton Park

It gets worse. After successive goalless draws, Rafa Benitez concluded his third game at Chelsea with the club’s first defeat in London’s East End since 2002.
Notonly that but the new manager was outwitted by his old adversary Sam Allardyce,whose two substitutions at the interval changed the game after West Ham had gone in one-nil down.

Allardyce, once sarcastically derided by Benitez as making  Bolton the team whose style everyone would want to emulate, brought on Matt Taylor and Mohamed Diame, both of whom made excellent contributions. Diame in particular was the dynamic force needed to break up the rhythm of Chelsea’s three attacking midfielders.
Benitez, concerned by a glut of fixtures that continues  with the decisive Champions’ League game against Nordsjaelland on Wednesday, gave Oscar  a rest this time with Victor Moses starting, but the latter was like most of his team-mates: fading badly when the home team finally applied some pressure towards half-time and then throughout the second period. Fernando Torres was another, having neatly set up Juan Mata for the opening goal. Just as alarming was how the defence – the one encouraging feature of those first two Benitez matches against Manchester City and Fulham - caved in near the end.
True, the equalising goal by the excellent Carlton Cole should have been disallowed for a push on Branislav Ivanovic but against that West Ham ought to  have been level earlier when James Collins was wrongly penalised for a far more negligible challenge. The only blot on their day had come before kick-off, when it was confirmed that Andy Carroll has ligament damage and will be out for another six to eight weeks. OPT CUT He will stay with West Ham although his parent club Liverpool have been kept fully informed of developments.END CUT
  “We have to improve on the pitch and the fans will be happy,  Benitez insisted. “It will take time maybe.” That, of course, is the one commodity that Chelsea managers are rarely given. It is surely inconceivable that even Roman Abramovich would contemplate another change so soon, though the odds against Benitez going before Christmas  are down to 12-1 and falling.
 Asked if he was 100 per cent convinced he could see things through he replied: “I know100 per cent that we didn’t win it today.” The reason for that, he rightly declared, was that Chelsea’s improved first-half performance did not produce enough goals and then suddenly and dramatically deteriorated.
“When you are controlling the game like we were in the first half you have to score more,” he said. “We deserved to score more. It’s difficult to explain [the change] when you are so good first half.”
Allardyce had the explanation, in the change of both personnel and tactics. Convinced that his team were playing through midfield too much, he ordered better service into Cole and more use of the flanks, getting the ball behind Chelsea’s adventurous full-backs. Each of the three goals came from one or other of those methods.
 “We over-complicated things first half and they really should have finished us off,” Allardyce admitted. “They were much better than we were. But we’ve ended up beating them fair and square.”
 Chelsea had certainly made almost all the chances in a misleading first half-an-hour and were ahead after only 12 minutes.  From a throw-in on the right, Moses sent Torres to the byline to cut back a perfectly placed and weighted pass for Mata to drive in his eighth goal of the season.  It was Chelsea’s first for almost six hours and did not prevent the ritual outbreak of chants for the deposed Roberto di Matteo four minutes later. There should have been more goals. Moses miscued a cross from Ramires and when the visitors broke  with four men against two, Torres clipped the pass from Ramires over the bar. Then Moses fooled Guy Demel utterly and Jussi Jaaskelainen had to make a fine save from Mata, unmarked again.
 Not for half an hour did West Ham threaten, at which point they were harshly denied a goal, Martin Atkinson ruling that Collins had pushed Ivanovic in the build-up. The referee upset the home support again just before the interval by showing Petr Cech only a red card for handling outside the penalty area, the goalkeeper staying on the pitch to save well from Kevin Nolan’s header following the subsequent free-kick.
 It was a sign of things to come. Nolan and Diame had fierce shots blocked before, just after the hour, a cross from Jarvis looped up and Cole leant all over Ivanovic to head his first goal of the campaign. In a rare piece of retaliation Mata struck a free-kick against the inside of a post but the flow of the game was in the other direction. Ashley Cole had to head off the line from Winston Reid and five minutes from the end Cole held the ball up neatly for Diame  to beat Cech with a low drive.
The young Malian Modibo Maiga immediately replaced the scorer and in added time he picked up on Ashley Cole’s mistake and Nolan’s shot to score the third. The last word off the pitch was equally emphatic, Allardyce warning Benitez: “ You can’t do it if the fans are not behind you. And the only way to get that is to win.”


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Observer:
West Ham's Modibo Maïga makes Chelsea and Rafael Benítez suffer
Dominic Fifield at Upton Park

Chelsea's retreat into the chasing pack continues apace. Rafael Benítez's side surrendered a grip on this derby and contrived to end up overwhelmed, overrun and utterly embarrassed, with all the disillusion that has festered over recent weeks erupting again in a show of open revolt in the stands. All four sides of the arena united in a chorus of "You're getting sacked in the morning" spat at the Spaniard, though that represented one of the kinder chants aimed his way by the disgruntled visiting support. At present, it is hard to see this marriage of convenience working out and Benítez admitted as much.
Asked if he could be certain he would be granted that opportunity to ride out the early storm, Benítez said: "No, I am not 100% certain. But we didn't win and if we had won the game we would be happy now. We have to win games to change things. My concern is improving the team and if we do that and start winning games, we'll be able to turn things around. The main thing for me is to improve the team. I'm not thinking about anything else. And if we improve on the pitch, the fans will be happy."
The European champions feel diminished these days, their gloss long gone, with too many in their number stripped of confidence. The winless league run extends to seven matches, their worst sequence since February 1995, with even the vague promise generated by successive clean sheets in the new manager's first two matches wrecked by this collapse. The stand-in was always fighting an uphill battle off the pitch but his team are far too brittle on it. Only three visiting players approached their fans on the final whistle to acknowledge the support, the rest shuffling off with the weight of the world on their shoulders. On this evidence, to consider them as title contenders feels like folly.
What made this all the more disturbing was the reality that the game should have been over, in Chelsea's favour, by the interval, when their lead stood at a single goal but might have been swollen by considerably more. Chances had been missed on the counterattack, with Sam Allardyce conceding as much. "They should have finished us off, they were so much better than we were," he said. "But they ended up paying the price."
The introduction of Mohamed Diamé – tired after his midweek exertions at Manchester United – and Matt Taylor that provided the spark, the former driving Ramires into his shell and West Ham forward with a vengeance. The hosts swarmed all over panicked opponents and Chelsea duly fell to pieces.
By the end this felt like a thrashing, with Benítez acknowledging even the suspect nature of Carlton Cole's equaliser – the forward having clambered all over Branislav Ivanovic on the edge of the six-yard box to head in Matt Jarvis's deflected delivery – could not be used as an excuse. Benítez described the award as "unlucky", a comment dripping with sarcasm, but it had been coming.
His side had at least hinted at a response, Juan Mata belting a free-kick on to the inside of a post, but still imploded at the last. Diamé thundered in a shot from the edge of the area that careered beyond Petr Cech four minutes from time to establish the lead, with another substitute, Modibo Maïga, adding a third after Ashley Cole had offered up possession with the visitors over-committed up-field.
Chelsea's limp finish was damning, that of a team who simply could not cope. Cue the unfurling of a banner in the away end that read: "Di Matteo Chelsea legend. Fact. Rafa Chelsea reject". Benítez had been subjected to worse, whether it was chants calling for a "table for two" or the now customary chorus for his predecessor in the 16th minute. His team had still been celebrating their first goal under his stewardship at that point, Mata having benefited from Victor Moses's fine pass beyond Winston Reid and Fernando Torres's neat pullback to steer in the opening goal.
That was Torres's first direct involvement in a Chelsea goal for 11 hours and two minutes, though his wait for personal reward goes on. His best chance came in the dying seconds, a point-blank header planted straight at Jussi Jaaskelainen, even if, by then, the contest had veered away. Within moments the final whistle prompted gleeful pandemonium among the home side's support.
This first victory over Chelsea in nine years meant everything and was achieved in the absence of Andy Carroll, who will be sidelined into the new year with a damaged lateral ligament in his knee, news that made Carlton Cole's performance all the more timely. The forward had laid off the ball for Diamé's goal as well as wrestling above Ivanovic to nod in his equaliser.
"The news on Andy is sweetened by that performance," said Allardyce. "And Maïga scoring, too, because we'll need him now more than ever to adjust to the Premier League. We've contacted Liverpool on Andy, and they have had all the information and sent down a medical representative to look at him. He's visited a specialist and will stay with us."
Carroll's absence could stretch to eight weeks, in which time much might change at both of these clubs. Certainly, everything at Chelsea feels horribly temporary. The week ahead is likely to see their Champions League defence peter out, even if they manage to defeat Nordsjaelland at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday. Asked if the challenge he had taken on after two years out of the game was proving more difficult than he had imagined, Benítez said: "It could be, yes. This is a top side in the middle of the season but things aren't the best. We'll try and improve things but it will take time.
"It's difficult to explain the turnaround today. We could have finished the game in the first half, but it was totally different after that. They were on top of us and we couldn't manage: we gave the ball away easily, weren't comfortable in possession, they were in control, not winning the first or second balls ... we have to improve, and the players are desperate to improve. I'm here because I want to be here. This is a top side who can compete for trophies but we need to work to get back towards that."
Their crisis merely deepens by the game.


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Telegraph:

West Ham United 3 Chelsea 1
By Jason Burt, Upton Park

Three matches into his reign as Chelsea manager Rafael Benítez is, quite rightly, being asked if he can survive the season. Such is the craziness of the club he has joined that he can’t say yes.
“No, I am not 100 per cent,” Benítez said after this hammer blow of a defeat. “But we didn’t win today.”
He couldn’t say anything else. Every move he makes is met with scalding hot derision from the Chelsea supporters. Team selection, tactical changes, substitutions – even tie selection (although he wore a sober blue number on Saturday).
The only cry that goes up — the only cry that is repeatable anyway — is “you don’t know what you are doing”.
For all of his tactical acumen, his impressive CV, the wholly understandable reasons why he took the post, albeit on a temporary basis following the irrational sacking of Roberto Di Matteo, Benítez is in danger of drowning here in a sea of bile and invective.
Sam Allardyce picked up on it. You can’t survive, he said, if the fans don’t want you. No way. “The only way you can get the fans behind you is to win,” the West Ham manager added.
“You have to win. It’s all you can do.”
Benítez concurred. Asked again whether he feared for his job he said: “The main thing for me is to improve the team. I don’t think about anything else.”
Fernando Torres may be going down with Benítez. Finally the focus has fallen more sharply on the striker whose career at Chelsea has been wretched, disruptive and appears doomed to failure.
His refusal, as a £45 million asset, to take responsibility is grating. His body language is of a man who would rather be anywhere else in the world than straight-jacked in a Chelsea shirt.
It’s more than 12 hours now for him without a Premier League goal; it’s seven matches for Chelsea without a victory. November is traditionally the month in which they struggle but they are taking those troubles into December.
But dwelling on Chelsea’s troubles might be doing a disservice to West Ham who produced a rousing second-half comeback. “It was all about belief and desire,” Allardyce said. “We continued until they cracked.”
And crack Chelsea did. The sight of Ashley Cole — of all people — gifting West Ham the final goal was incredible. The way in which both central defenders were pummeled by Carlton Cole — playing after it was confirmed Andy Carroll will be out for up to eight weeks through injury – was equally so.
Having made much play of the defensive organisation and two clean sheets — without, of course, a goal being scored either — that Benítez claimed he had brought to Chelsea before yesterday then this was a sorry capitulation in a capital derby.
Three matches; two points; no wins; one goal scored and three conceded for Benítez. He likes his stats and facts but that makes brutal reading for the European champions who spent £80 million in the summer only to be told last week by their new manager that the squad isn’t fit enough and probably isn’t big enough.
And yet it should have been so different. A game of two halves? You betcha. Chelsea were rampant, guided superbly by the delightful talents of Juan Mata, in an opening 45 minutes that they utterly dominated.
It was summed up perfectly by their goal — which included Torres’s one impressive contribution as he ran cleverly behind Winston Reid to collect Victor Moses’s pass and cut the ball back
into Mata’s path. The midfielder guided his side-footed shot into the net.
West Ham were in disarray, lethargic and maybe leggy. Ramires found Moses — he sliced wide; Ramires then picked out Torres — he snatched at it and shot over.
Torres then broke clear — and fired a pass far too hard at Eden Hazard when he should have shot before Mata’s powerful effort was beaten out by Jussi Jaaskelainen.
Surely Chelsea would score? But they didn’t and there was a taste of what was to come on the stroke of half-time as Petr Cech tipped over Kevin Nolan’s header.
The impetus changed and the introduction of Mohamed Diamé — in particular – and Matt Taylor made all the difference as West Ham pushed up the pitch, pushed wide and applied some pressure.
Still, Chelsea resisted — and then a moment of controversy for Benítez as Matt Jarvis crossed, the ball flicked up off Gary Cahill and Carlton Cole challenged Branislav Ivanovic to the header.
Except Ivanovic didn’t attempt to head the ball — which is why referee Martin Atkinson probably allowed Cole to wrap himself around the defender and nod into the net.
Chelsea were furious; West Ham delighted and both teams went to try and win it. Torres erred again — shooting straight at Jaaskelainen when the goalkeeper’s block from Hazard’s shot fell at his feet before Mata’s free-kick thumped off a post.
Then another breakthrough and, again, the defending was indefensible as John Obi Mikel allowed Carlton Cole to turn and lay the ball back to Diamé who was unmarked. The midfielder simply drove his shot fiercely past Cech.
Chelsea panicked and after Ashley Cole was closed down he inexplicably passed infield and straight to substitute Modibo Maiga, who found Taylor whose low shot was parried by Cech. It fell to the onrushing Maiga who gleefully scored.
“I couldn’t control my emotions,” Allardyce said. Benítez appeared to be struggling also.


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Mail:

West Ham 3 Chelsea 1: Rafa's revolution in tatters as Blues' winless streak extends to seven games
By Rob Draper

This is a protest movement that will not be going away for some time.

When West Ham completed victory at Upton Park with Modibo Maiga scoring their third, a banner was unfurled in the Chelsea end in support of Roberto di Matteo which also suggested that Rafa Benitez was already a Chelsea reject.
And when the West Ham fans had gleefully chanted that Benitez would be sacked in the morning - and with Roman Abramovich's steady hand on the tiller you could not be sure whether this was dark humour or simply a reasonable assessment of the apposite facts - many Chelsea fans joined in.
All of which might have been expected given the depth of the hostility among Chelsea fans to the appointment of Benitez.

What was more significant, it took place in the first half when Chelsea were superb.

Their players' movement mirrored those late summer games under Di Matteo, when Chelsea were hailed as this season's team to watch.
Juan Mata was imperious; Eden Hazard had moments when he looked sublime; and Victor Moses was hitting levels previously unseen in his career.
Yet even then, at 1-0 up, as Chelsea toyed with their opponents, a small knot of Chelsea supporters abused Benitez and made it clear he is not wanted.

In those circumstances, Sam Allardyce was perhaps the last manager Benitez wanted to encounter at this fragile, embryonic stage of his Chelsea stewardship given their long-standing enmity.
'We don't have sympathy for each other, do we?' said Allardyce afterwards. 'We compete against each other, we toil against each other, we play mind games against each other, we tactically have to outweigh each other, and in the end we came out on top today.'
At the end of it, Chelsea haven't won in six matches and a season is slipping away. It was as dramatic a turnaround as you could imagine.

'I wouldn't say we were dead and buried in the first half but we looked like we were going to find it difficult to get back into the game,' said Allardyce. 'A lot of people had said that the Chelsea players were probably relieved to play away from home and I told my players to make sure it wasn't the case. I have to say in the first half it probably was. They really should have finished us off. They were much, much better. But because they didn't, they paid the price.'
For that, credit Allardyce for his tactical switch at half-time and, specifically, Mohamed Diame, whose role in midfield changed the game.
Without Diame, Chelsea had the run of Upton Park.
Their goal on 13 minutes was a fine example of their neat interchanges that had West Ham baffled. Moses played an exquisite ball for Fernando Torres, who chased it down and crossed it directly for his compatriot Mata to sidefoot into the bottom left-hand corner.

A period of utter domination followed.

Moses should have scored the second from Ramires' pull back on 21 minutes; Ramires should have released Branislav Ivanovic on 26 minutes, who would surely have scored, but instead opted for Torres in a worse position; and Hazard shot just over on 33 minutes.

There was, though, a glimpse of what was to come, when Kevin Nolan squeezed in an 'equaliser' on 34 minutes, only to see it disallowed for a James Collins foul on Ivanovic.
He was climbing, but nothing like as badly as Carlton Cole would later for the equaliser, which was not penalised.

Still, it needed a fantastic Jussi Jaaskelainen save on 44 minutes from Mata to keep West Ham in the game.

Yet almost directly from the off in the second half, West Ham were transformed, with Diame and Matt Taylor on and Nolan playing a bit closer to Carlton Cole.
Gary Cahill had already blocked a fierce Diame shot and Ivanovic had scrambled away a Nolan shot that had beaten Petr Cech shortly before the equaliser came.

True, Carlton Cole was clambering all over Ivanovic as he headed in on 62 minutes.

'You can say that we were unlucky,' said Benitez, with a wry smile.

He did, however, add: 'I know that we didn't do well in the second half, so I don't want to use any excuse.'
Chelsea rallied briefly. Hazard's deflected shot fell to Torres eight yards out but his strike into Jaaskelainen's hands was lame. Mata then had a delightful free-kick that hit the post.

But thereafter West Ham were in the ascendant, with Ashley Cole having to clear desperately off the line on 83 minutes.
When Joey O'Brien dinked a cross into Carlton Cole on 86 minutes and the striker held the ball up before playing in Diame, it was little surprise that the Senegalese drove the ball into the net.
And when, on 90 minutes, Ashley Cole played the ball directly to Maiga, there was a sense of inevitability about the end result.
He played in Taylor, whose shot rebounded off Cech to Maiga, who completed the victory and reignited the protests.


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Mirror:

West Ham 3-1 Chelsea

Hammer blow: West Ham come from behind to leave Chelsea boss Benitez singing the Blues
by Matt Law

Mata gave the away side the lead but three second-half goals sealed amazing Hammers comeback

Sam Allardyce might have been forgiven for making his own “game over” hand ­gesture when West Ham’s third goal hit the net.
But West Ham boss ­Allardyce was content in the knowledge he had gained sweet revenge on old foe Rafa Benitez and the Chelsea fans were doing his talking for him.
Allardyce first fell out with Benitez in 2009, when the Spaniard appeared to signal that it was game over after Liverpool had gone two goals up on Blackburn.
But the crucial second goal never came for Benitez’s new club in a first-half they­ ­dominated and Allardyce and West Ham took full ­advantage.
Allardyce made a double change at the break, sending on Mohamed Diame and Matt Taylor, and it proved to be ­inspired.
His third substitute Modibo Maiga scored the clinching goal.
There were no hand gestures from Allardyce, but both sets of fans chanted “You’re getting sacked in the morning” to ­beleaguered Benitez.
Crucially, the West Ham team fought for their manager and showed the spirit he has created in the dressing room.
Chelsea’s stars, however, looked as confused as the fans who want sacked ­Roberto Di Matteo back and went missing in a disastrous second-half.
Allardyce has never liked Benitez.
The West Ham fans don’t like him much, either, and the Chelsea supporters are ­certainly not keen.
But as much as this game was about the battle that ­interim boss Benitez faces to win around the Chelsea fans and players, it was also about the way in which Allardyce has silenced his West Ham doubters.
There are still Hammers fans who complain about the style of football under ­Allardyce, but that number is dwindling swiftly, thanks to results like this.
It did not look good for West Ham in the first half, ­especially when they fell ­behind to ­Chelsea’s first goal under ­Benitez after just 13 minutes.
Victor Moses played the ball down the right for Fernando Torres and the striker squared the ball for the brilliant Juan Mata to score.
Torres then skied the ball over the bar and Eden Hazard went close before Mata almost doubled Chelsea’s lead.
Moses crossed low from the left and Mata’s first goalbound shot was well saved by Jussi Jaaskelainen before his ­follow-up effort was blocked by Joey O’Brien.
West Ham had seen a Kevin Nolan goal rightly disallowed for pushing by centre-back James Collins and the ­midfielder forced Petr Cech into a great save on the stroke of half-time.
But it looked a matter of how many Chelsea would win by, rather than whether West Ham could fight their way back into the game.
Allardyce, though, changed the course of the match by sending on Diame and Taylor, and West Ham quickly took over.
Diame, who has already had an impressive season so far, was superb in ­midfield and had a shot blocked before the home team forced an ­equaliser in ­controversial ­circumstances.
A Matt Jarvis cross ­ballooned into the air and striker Carlton Cole climbed all over the back of Branislav Ivanovic to steer his header past Cech.
But the goal stood and ­Chelsea crumbled.
Jarvis wasted a good ­opportunity by delaying his shot too long after being sent through by Nolan.
Rightly sensing their ­London rivals were there for the taking, West Ham ­continued to push forwards and Diame was rewarded for his vital impact.
With just four minutes ­remaining, Cole chested the ball down and laid it off for Diame to smash a shot past the helpless Cech.
The defending from Mikel and Ivanovic had been ­terrible.
But the majority of people inside Upton Park did not care as they ­celebrated ­wildly.
And it got even better for West Ham and Allardyce in time added on for stoppages, as substitute Maiga netted the home side’s ­emphatic third.
Ashley Cole carelessly gave the ball away, Cech saved Taylor’s shot, but Maiga was on hand to secure all three points for the ­Hammers in what had by then become a famous ­victory.
Allardyce didn’t need to give a hand signal – it was game over for Chelsea and Benitez.


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Sun:

West Ham 3 Chelsea 1

By MARK IRWIN

SAM ALLARDYCE knows that he will probably never feature on Roman Abramovich’s wanted list when the Chelsea owner begins his search for yet another new boss.

So it was hardly surprising that the man derided as a managerial throwback to the days of blood and thunder took so much satisfaction from this well-deserved Hammers victory.

For 45 minutes yesterday Allardyce could only stand and squirm as his team were taken apart by Chelsea’s ball-playing sophisticates.
Yet Big Sam did not panic and he did not get out the half-time hairdryer.

Instead, he made a couple of tactical changes to his team, cranked up the pressure on his opponents’ egg-shell confidence and watched in satisfaction as every one of his second-half decisions paid dividends.

Key to the dramatic turn-around was the introduction of midfield enforcer Mohamed Diame as a half-time replacement for the out-of-sorts James Tomkins.
 Suddenly Juan Mata was denied the space he had revelled in during the first 45 minutes as the hungry Hammers swarmed all over a team who do not know where their next win is coming from their visitors.

And the minute Carlton Cole climbed all over Branislav Ivanovic to head home West Ham’s controversial 63rd- minute equaliser, you knew there was only going to be one winner.

It was West Ham’s first win over their London rivals in 14 attempts and Allardyce said: “I wouldn’t say we were dead and buried at half-time but the second half was all about our belief, our desire and our quality.

“We upped our level from the first minute of the second half and we kept going until they cracked.

“We over-complicated things in the first half but we changed it tactically and all three of our substitutes made a big contribution to what was an outstanding victory.”

While Allardyce was left to celebrate three crucial points, Abramovich must be asking himself just what the hell is going on at Chelsea. The trigger-happy Russian might have given this one a swerve but could probably still have heard the howls of protest from the other side of London.

And his team haven’t hit rock bottom yet. That comes on Wednesday night when they go out of the Champions League and surrender the crown they fought so long and hard for.

If Chelsea play anything like this against Danish minnows Nordsjaelland in midweek, the result of Juventus’ trip to Donetsk will be immaterial.
This is their worst run of form since February 1995. Not since the days of Glenn Hoddle, 11 managers ago, have the Blues gone seven Premier League games without a win.

And, the way things are going right now, you would not bet against Rafa Benitez soon joining them.

It would be ludicrous to lay all of the blame for Chelsea’s collapse at the door of an interim manager who has been in the job for only 11 days.
But none of the travelling fans were prepared to give the Spaniard the benefit of the doubt as they joined in with the West Ham taunts of “you’re getting sacked in the morning’.

And that overwhelming mood of negativity has quickly spread to a “team’ of players who showed neither character nor fighting spirit to resist West Ham’s impressive second-half comeback. Even without the injured John Terry and Frank Lampard, the lack of leadership in the Chelsea ranks was alarming.

Benitez had complained before this game that his players were exhausted because the squad was too small and Roberto Di Matteo hadn’t rotated enough. Yet he still didn’t have the courage to leave out Fernando Torres, who has started more games than any other outfield player this season yet contributed less than most of them.

To be fair to Torres — and that’s not a phrase we’ve used too often in the last couple of years — he did set up the first goal of Benitez’s reign when he teed up Mata’s emphatic 13th-minute finish.

But that was to be his last meaningful contribution of an afternoon in which Chelsea’s lack of spine came home to haunt them.

And they have no-one but themselves to blame for their failure to take advantage of their overwhelming first-half dominance.

Yet as dreadful as West Ham were during those first 45 minutes, they were superior in every department following Allardyce’s tactical tinkering.
Cole’s 63rd-minute equaliser from Matt Jarvis’ deflected cross was confirmation that the tide had turned.

Benitez desperately tried to shore things up by hauling off Eden Hazard to chants of “you don’t know what you’re doing” from the travelling Blues fans.
But there was no stopping West Ham now and they deservedly took the lead in the 86th minute when Cole held off John Obi Mikel to tee up Diame for an unstoppable low shot.

And any thoughts of an unlikely Chelsea comeback were extinguished when Ashley Cole gifted the hosts a third when his terrible pass allowed Matt Taylor to set up fellow sub Modibo Maiga deep into stoppage time.


DREAM TEAM

SUN STAR MAN - NOLAN (WEST HAM)

West Ham: Jaaskelainen 7, Demel 6, Collins 7, Reid 6, O'Brien 6, Tomkins 5 (Taylor 46), Noble 7, O'Neil 5 (Diame 46), Nolan 8, Jarvis 6, Cole 7 (Maiga 87). Subs Not Used: Spiegel, Spence, Fanimo, Moncur. Booked: Noble. Goals: Cole 63, Diame 86, Maiga 90.

Chelsea: Cech 7, Azpilicueta 6, Ivanovic 5, Cahill 6, Cole 5, Mikel 6, Ramires 6, Moses 7 (Marin 78), Hazard 6 (Oscar 73), Mata 8, Torres 5. Subs Not Used: Turnbull, Ferreira, Bertrand, Romeu, Piazon. Booked: Cech, Mikel. Goals: Mata 13.

Att: 35,005
Ref: Martin Atkinson (W Yorkshire).

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Express:

WEST HAM 3 - CHELSEA 1: RAFA BENITEZ FINDS IT TOUGH
Chelsea boss Rafa Benitez will have a tough time winning over the fans

By Colin Mafham

BELEAGURED Rafa Benitez was left clinging to his ‘interim’ job last night – after just three games in charge without a win.

 Yesterday’s disastrous 3-1 defeat at West Ham saw him taunted cruelly by BOTH sets of fans with chants of “you’re getting sacked in the morning.”
They might just have had a point.
 Other chants of “there’s only one Di Matteo” and “you don’t know what you’re doing” were virtually unprecedented for someone so new in the job.
 They will not have been lost on Roman Abramovich, the ruthless Russian who installed Benitez after sacking Roberto Di Matteo, despite the Italian winning the FA Cup and the Champions League with Chelsea last season.
 And he could well step up efforts to persuade his first choice, Pep Guardiola, to prematurely end his 12-month sabbatical and come to Chelsea’s rescue sooner rather than later.
 Even Benitez, looking understandably glum at last night’s post-match inquest, could not guarantee that he will keep the job he has been given only until the end of what is looking like a long, hard season.

“No, I am not 100 per cent sure,” he admitted. “But I am 100 per cent certain that we lost this game.”
Benitez tried to play down the hostile reception Chelsea fans, upset at the way he replaced Di Matteo, again gave him throughout yesterday’s game.
 Despite taking the lead with a stunning goal after just 12 minutes, they voiced their united support for the Spaniard’s predecessor for a full uninterrupted 60 seconds.
 They followed that up with chants of “you don’t know what you’re doing” when he replaced Eden Hazard with the Brazilian playmaker, Oscar, in the second half.

The final insult came when they joined rival West Ham fans in taunting him with cries of “you’re getting sacked in the morning!” And even West Ham’s Sam Allardyce expressed doubt that Benitez can turn things around at Chelsea if the fans continue to vilify him.
“It is not possible to do it without the fans behind you,” he said last night. “And the only way to get that is to win games,” he added.
Combined with Chelsea’s feeble second-half performance, that must have come as a bitter blow for Benitez, who is still waiting for his fi rst win in charge and facing a potential early exit on Wednesday from the Champions League that Di Matteo conquered.
“The fans were expecting us to win and they were disappointed,” he said. “But we are disappointed as well.”
Benitez, whose hopes of delivering the Premier League title for Abramovich look increasingly unlikely after this, must now hope Shakhtar Donetsk beat Juventus on Wednesday to have any hope of staying among Europe’s elite as well.
“The only thing we can do is keep on working and try to see what is wrong,” he said. “At this level you have to take your chances.”
If he fails to manage that before next Saturday’s match against struggling Sunderland, Abramovich might decide he needs someone else to take Chelsea to Japan for the FIFA World Club Cup in less than a fortnight’s time.


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Star:

WEST HAM 3 - CHELSEA 1: RAFA BENITEZ FACING SACK AS BLUE BOYS FLOP AGAIN
By Harry Pratt

NINE days into the job and Rafa Benitez must already fear the worst.
Or at the very least be bracing himself for one of those dreaded, unannounced visits to the Chelsea training ground by the club’s ruthless owner Roman Abramovich – with the firing squad just behind.
When the Russian billionaire pitches up at Cobham without warning, it usually spells trouble – just ask Roberto Di Matteo, Andre Villas-Boas and the rest of Benitez’s sacked Stamford Bridge predecessors.
Sure, the Blues interim boss Benitez, who only took over the reins a week last Thursday, can probably expect to be cut some slack – given he was very much Roman’s appointment.
But after this crushing derby defeat to West Ham – when his team collapsed and conceded three times in a shocking second half – it is safe to assume the Spaniard will be having more sleepless nights.
In three games under his ill-fated watch, Chelsea have failed to win, picking up just two points in the process and sliding ever further away from a serious title challenge.
Rafa’s Blues were already certain to be seven points adrift of the leaders last night. But a win for Man United at Reading in the late game stretched the deficit to a thumping TEN points.
Which is clearly not what owner Abramovich ordered when he stunned football and everyone connected to the south-west Londoners by removing Champions League winner Di Matteo and replacing him with the former Liverpool boss.
Unwanted and unloved before he even took to the Chelsea dugout, Benitez’s unpopularity is plumbing new depths.
“We don’t want you here, f*** off’, ‘You don’t know what you’re doing’ and ‘There’s only one Di Matteo’ were among the chants coming out of the away end yesterday.
And Chelsea were leading at the time of those songs – through Spaniard Juan Mata’s stunning 13th-minute strike. If ever Rafa, Roman and the board needed proof he will not be accepted by the club’s hardcore, that was surely it.
Yet afterwards Benitez said: “I am not thinking about these other things. We have to improve on the pitch and then the fans will be happy.
“The next game is in the Champions League. That is all I am concerned with. Today we were better offensively and created chances but we were not so good at the back.
“How do we turn things around? By working hard. I’m not looking at the league table.
“I thought we were unlucky to concede the equaliser but I can’t use that as en excuse because we weren’t good enough in the second half.”
To be fair, Chelsea could have been out of sight at the interval had Fernando Torres, Victor Moses and Eden Hazard not wasted glorious chances. But a half-time substitution by Sam Allardyce, changing James Tomkins for Mohamed Diame, totally swung the game in West Ham’s favour.
The Senegal star was everywhere and the Hammers’ relentless pressure was rewarded in the 62nd minute as Carlton Cole headed in the equaliser, despite climbing all over Branislav Ivanovic.
And that was the signal for Chelsea’s under-the-cosh rearguard to wobble and then crumble in the closing stages.
Firstly, Diame fired the Hammers ahead with four minutes left – rifling in from the edge of the area. And then, as Chelsea attempted to reply, they were hit on the counter-attack.
Ashley Cole’s misplaced pass was intercepted by Modibo Maiga and, after Petr Cech had kept out Matt Taylor’s effort, the Mali striker tucked in the killer third.
That had Allardyce, who has a history of grudge clashes with Benitez, leaping as if he had just won the League and FA Cup all at once. Big Sam, whose side moved up to seventh in the table before the rest of the afternoon’s matches, beamed: “I couldn’t control my emotions – we’d just beaten our rivals in a big derby. This is one of the outstanding moments of the season.
“To turn it around in the second half was quite fantastic because Chelsea were a lot better than us in the first half.
“But they failed to finish us off and then we went for them in the second half until they cracked – and they did crack.
“I don’t have any sympathy for any manager. We compete, we play mind games and we toil against each other – and today I won.”
West Ham’s on-loan striker Andy Carroll has been ruled out for up to eight weeks with a knee injury.
Boss Allardyce said: “We didn’t expect it to be quite as severe.
“It’s going to be about six to eight weeks. It’s a blow for us and Andy.”



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Times:

West Ham 3 Chelsea 1: Blues are hammered

David Walsh

A KINDLY man who owns an electrical shop across the road from Upton Park Tube station said it would kill the area. The move to the Olympic Park, he was talking about. An hour or so later a match that started slowly rose to the kind of pulsating contest you expect when coming to a London derby at this old ground. If ever it goes, it will be missed.
West Ham trailed by a goal at half-time but were a different team in the second half, timidity replaced by aggression, the desire to contain overtaken by an eagerness to confront. Chelsea preferred the first-half Hammers. It made for a terrific contest, one of those lovely football days when determination counted for more than technical ability. Team spirit, remember that? It decided this game.
What was remarkable was the dominance West Ham achieved at the end, their third goal coming when a stray pass from Ashley Cole was intercepted by the substitute, Modibo Maiga, who sent Kevin Nolan through on goal. His shot was parried by Petr Cech and there was Maiga, dancing on Chelsea’s grave, rifling the ball into the back of the net.

Gary Cahill had got back but couldn’t prevent the goal and, instead, he kicked a goalpost in frustration. That show of anger wasn’t unwelcome because too many of Cahill’s teammates seemed unaffected yesterday, disappointed to have been beaten but not much more than that. Cole’s listlessness was startling because it was so unlike him. At the end his heart wasn’t in it.
Yet Chelsea had started well and controlled the play for most of the first half. It wasn’t that they were better than their rivals but that the difference in class was so apparent. “They should have finished us and because they didn’t, they paid the price,” said West Ham’s manager, Sam Allardyce.
Central to the turnaround was the introduction of Mohamed Diame in the second half because he had a terrific influence on the match and a terrifying influence on Chelsea’s midfield. It was entirely appropriate he should have scored the goal that put his team 2-1 up with seven minutes remaining after good work by Carlton Cole.
How different it had all been in the first half. Chelsea’s opening goal came after 13 minutes and was an ode to simplicity. Juan Mata made a simple pass to Victor Moses who saw Fernando Torres make a short diagonal run inside the penalty area. The pass gave Torres the chance to do something and he angled a delightful cut-back for Mata to sidefoot the ball into the far corner. It seemed too easy.
It was interesting to watch Chelsea celebrate as players arrived to hail Torres for his pass, not neglecting Mata but they wanted their out-of-sorts centre forward to know they still believed, or were still professing to believe. But Torres still seems the ashes of the former fire and when Ramires picked him out in a scoring position, you willed him to do something positive.
But he lifted his shot well over the crossbar. It was a miss that spoke of lost confidence and a couple of minutes later he pulled a ball for Eden Hazard that had far too much pace and another chance was lost.
At first the wastefulness didn’t seem to matter much, such was Chelsea’s dominance. They were too good for a team forever chasing the game but never quite catching it. But in control, Chelsea were content to cruise. Hazard’s fine shot flew just over and then West Ham keeper Jussi Jaaskelainen made a fine save from Mata but what did it matter, Chelsea seemed to believe the pattern would never change. But Nolan got the ball in the Chelsea net only for referee Martin Atkinson to penalise James Collins for a push on Branislav Ivanovic. Then in the last minute of the half, a rebound from a Collins free-kick was headed towards goal by Matt Jarvis and on again by Nolan, who drew a fine save from Cech.
One is inclined to believe that even if Chelsea had expected the West Ham fightback, they didn’t have the personnel to react. No John Terry, no Frank Lampard, and on a day like yesterday you also recall what Didier Drogba and Michael Ballack used to do for the team. Rafael Benitez, the under-siege manager, put it rather gently.
“With the kind of players we have, you have to be in possession,” he said, meaning that his team can play with the ball but are not good at fighting for it. West Ham might have scored three times in the second half before Jarvis’ cross was deflected upwards off Cahill and Carlton Cole rose high above Ivanovic to head the equaliser.
Cole’s arms were all over the centre-half’s back but having penalised Collins for a similar push on Ivanovic in the first half, it seemed referee Atkinson had grown tired of the centre-back not jumping for crosses, perhaps hoping for another free. Isolated and outplayed in the first half, Cole was outstanding in the second half.
Chelsea did react well to the goal. Hazard struck a decent shot that Jaaskelained blocked and Torres, inevitably, headed into the keeper’s arms.
Then Mata struck the inside of the post with a fine free-kick. But that was it for Chelsea. The rest of the game belonged to West Ham. Diame’s goal was a deserved reward for he single-handedly turned the game West Ham’s way and it killed Chelsea.
Maiga’s goal would have driven a stake through Chelsea’s heart, if they’d had one.

West Ham United: Jaaskelainen 7, Demel 6, Collins 6, Reid 6, O’Brien 6, Tomkins 5 (Taylor h-t, 6), Noble 6, O’Neil 5 (Diame h-t, 9), Nolan 6, Jarvis 7, C Cole 7 (Maiga 87min)
Chelsea: Cech 6, Azpilicueta 6, Ivanovic 5, Cahill 6, A Cole 4, Mikel 6, Ramires 7, Moses 6 (Marin 78min), Hazard 6 (Oscar 73min), Mata 6, Torres 5