Chelsea will aim to maintain their late charge for a European place when they host West Ham at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.
The Blues beat London rivals Tottenham 2-0 in midweek to return to winning ways after a heavy defeat to Arsenal and a draw against Aston Villa.
Mauricio Pochettino’s side are now just three points outside the top six with four matches remaining and can significantly boost their confidence with another win.
They face the Hammers who can leapfrog their opponents if they win and end their three-game winless streak.
Chelsea vs West Ham: Moyes’ woes at Stamford Bridge
David Moyes faces a trip to Chelsea for the 19th time this weekend.
In 18 attempts, the 61-year-old has never won at Stamford Bridge.
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He has lost 11 times and drawn seven others while still waiting for his first victory in SW6.
Pochettino is in the home dugout for this encounter and will be the 11th different Blues manager Moyes will face at the stadium.
Their 18-game winless streak is the second longest ever in the Premier League at a single venue.
Incredibly, the longest time is held by Moyes himself as he also has 19 games without a win at Anfield against Liverpool.
- West Ham United are looking to record just their third Premier League double against Chelsea, having done so in 2002-03 and 2019-20.
- Chelsea have lost just one of their last 17 home league matches against West Ham United (W12 D4), a 1-0 defeat in November 2019 under Frank Lampard.
Chelsea vs West Ham: team news
Chelsea almost had a full bench of teenagers against Spurs last time out due to their injury crisis which continues to affect them.
Levi Colwill and Christopher Nkunku are set to make a return, however, while Reece James is also back in training.
Axel Disasi and Thiago Silva were both missing midweek while Robert Sanchez and Lesley Ugochukwu continue to recover.
Raheem Sterling is expected to remain out alongside Malo Gusto, Carney Chukwuemeka, Ben Chilwell, Enzo Fernandez, Wesley Fofana and Romeo Lavia.
As for West Ham, they don’t have too many problems to resolve.
Moyes will, however, be keen to bring back Konstantinos Mavropanos and Nayef Aguerd, to provide more depth at centre-back.
- Chelsea have won just one of their last 13 Premier League matches played on Sunday (D5 L7), a 3-2 win over Brighton in December this season.
- The team scoring first in Premier League matches between Chelsea and West Ham have lost on 10 occasions – the only matches to see more defeats from the team scoring first in the competition are Southampton v Tottenham (13 ), Chelsea v Sunderland (11). ), and Liverpool v Newcastle (11).
Chelsea vs West Ham: what was said?
Pochettino made Chelsea fans believe he will lose his job at the end of the season after an awkward interview on Thursday.
Speaking after beating Tottenham, he admitted his fate was not in his hands: “Enough is enough. All managers need time to translate their ideas and philosophy.
“It’s not my decision (if I have time). I don’t know (if I’m judged by the owners).
“It is difficult to see every week that I am scrutinized and judged.
“It’s not up to me to decide to be here or not to be here (next season).
“I can’t say anything. What I can say is that after the decision, if we want to match Chelsea’s history, there is a lot of work to do.
“We’ll see if we have time to build that way.”
- Cole Palmer has scored or assisted against 13 different Premier League opponents this season for Chelsea, although he is yet to face West Ham. Only six different players have scored or assisted against 14 different teams in a Premier League season for the Blues, most recently Eden Hazard in 2018-19 (15).
- Jarrod Bowen and Michail Antonio both scored in the 2-2 draw against Liverpool last time out, the seventh different Premier League game in which they have both scored for West Ham. It is the record that two players have scored in the same match in the competition for the Hammers, with Paolo Di Canio and Frédéric Kanoute.
Chelsea vs West Ham: how to follow
This Premier League clash will take place on Sunday May 5.
Kick-off at Stamford Bridge is scheduled for 2 p.m.
The match will unfortunately not be shown live on television in the UK.
talkSPORT and talkSPORT.com will keep you up to date with the latest news.
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