The latest defensive blow suffered by West Ham United during the club’s meeting with Chelsea this afternoon has given rise to nothing short of a crisis ahead of the club’s next domestic outing.
David Moyes’ troops were of course back in action a short time ago, making the trip across London for a Premier League meeting with capital rivals Chelsea.
And, with a full 86 minutes on the clock, the Irons looked good value for a share of the spoils, amid a hard-fought, but ultimately goalless affair.
The momentum, however, soon swung firmly in favour of the hosts, as Craig Dawson, amid a stellar individual display, was given his marching orders for a foul on Romelu Lukaku.
After consulting the VAR monitor, the ref has also sent off Craig Dawson for pulling back Lukaku. #CHEWHU 0-0 (84) https://t.co/JPbSUTkDdb
— West Ham United (@WestHam) April 24, 2022
Dawson, in turn, now faces a one-game ban.
And, safe to say, this development could not come at a more inopportune moment for David Moyes and co.
Remarkably, West Ham are now primed to head into the club’s meeting with Arsenal next weekend without a single senior centre-half option available for selection.
This comes with the suspended Dawson having followed the sidelined trio of Kurt Zouma, Issa Diop and Angelo Ogbonna onto the absentee list.
Pulisic makes the difference
Adding insult to injury, meanwhile, is the fact that, not only did West Ham go on to slip to defeat at Stamford Bridge on Sunday, but the Irons did so only AFTER Lukasz Fabianski kept out the penalty which followed Dawson’s dismissal.
Instead, as proceedings rolled into the 90th minute, substitute Christian Pulisic latched onto Marcos Alonso’s low delivery from the left, to pick out the bottom corner of the visitors’ net:
CHELSEA TAKE THE LEAD! ? pic.twitter.com/QeHObbB3eM
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) April 24, 2022
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This article was edited by
Josh Barker.
