West Ham v Chelsea: Premier League – live

TNT have got Joe Cole pitchside which seems a good idea given that he showed off his silky skills at both clubs. Cole, a good talker, says Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca has the “hardest job in the Premier League”. He worries that Chelsea are being run purely as a business.

Chelsea are the second highest scorers in the Premier League this season with eight. That’s just one goal fewer than Erling Haaland. Not bad, eh. Thanks to the decent GD via the 6-2 win at Wolves, if they win by two goals or more today they’ll jump into second place. A win for the Hammers would see them join Chelsea on seven points and lift the hosts from 14th to ninth.

West Ham Women’s team are also in action which is a bit rubbish if you actually support the men as well and want to watch both. Who came up with that scheduling? TV, I know. You can keep track of that WSL clash – Man Utd v West Ham – here. Emillia Hawkins will guide you through. It kicks off at 12pm.

So it’s a first Chelsea start for Jadon Sancho. He did well coming off the bench at Bournemouth so Enzo Maresca feels it’s worth putting the winger in from the start.

Enzo Fernandez returns in midfield while Tosin gets a first top-flight start in the Chelsea rearguard. Renato Veiga, Pedro Neto and Axel Disasi all drop to the bench.

For West Ham, there’s also a debut for a wideman as new signing Crysenscio Summerville gets the nod. Lucas Paqueta returns as expected, with Tomas Soucek and Michail Antonio the two to make way from the XI who started in the 1-1 draw at Fulham last week.

West Ham: Areola, Wan-Bissaka, Mavropanos, Kilman, Emerson, Alvarez, Rodriguez, Paqueta, Summerville, Bowen, Kudus.

Subs: Fabianski, Cresswell, Soler, Coufal, Antonio, Ings, Todibo, Soucek, Irving.

Chelsea: Sanchez, Fofana, Tosin, Colwill, Cucurella, Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez, Madueke, Palmer, Sancho, Jackson.

Subs: Jorgensen, Badiashile, Disasi, Veiga, Dewsbury-Hall, Neto, Mudryk, Joao Felix, Nkunku.

Via nice images from social media, we have the two teams…

So far this season, it’s been far more fun to be an away supporter of West Ham and Chelsea. The Hammers’ travelling faithful have seen their side pick up four points from short trips to Crystal Palace and Fulham while Chelsea’s have made the journey home on the back of a 6-2 thumping of Wolves and a 1-0 success at Bournemouth. At home though, it’s been a very different story. West Ham have suffered back-to-back defeats (against Aston Villa and Manchester City admittedly) while Chelsea have just a single point at Stamford Bridge courtesy of a disappointing 1-1 draw with Palace.

Those Covid/empty stadium-season discrepancies surely can’t continue, or at least Julen Lopetegui hopes they won’t. David Moyes was accused of making the Hammers’ attack less than the sum of its parts and Lopetegui was supposed to reverse the equation when being appointed in the summer. It hasn’t happened so far and new manager goodwill is quick to burn out.

The good news for the Spaniard is that West Ham have strong recent history in this fixture, winning three of the last five on home soil and scoring three goals in each of those victories. Can that continue? Will the Hammers finally click? Will Chelsea have one of their good days? On the evidence of this season so far, nobody knows. Best find out then. It should be fun!