Five things learned as Chelsea encounter the risks of Sarrismo in 0-0 draw with West Ham

In a hot afternoon in East London, West Ham and Chelsea played out a 0-0 draw.

The Blues were fresh off their Europa League win against PAOK, and looking to continue their perfect six out of six start to the Premier League. But the Hammers managed to hold them to a draw. What did we learn?

1. Pedro is Chelsea’s MVP

Obviously Eden Hazard is the best player at Chelsea Football Club. The Belgian is a majestic footballer who can do things few others in the Premier League can. And obviously Jorginho is the pass-master in midfield; the man without whom Chelsea’s system of play wouldn’t work.

But Pedro is the most valuable player, because without him the Chelsea attack can be blunted with ease. Well, not ease, but for all of Hazard’s dribbling skill, someone moving off the ball as Pedro does is a lethal weapon in Sarrismo.

We saw this at The London Stadium where West Ham managed to, more or less, keep a lid on Chelsea. Hazard had two moments of excellent movement, making runs off the ball that saw him end up in acres of space – and Willian had one of those in stoppage time too. Those chances went begging, but there were only three clear looks in the whole game. Pedro’s movement (and with him moving, Hazard himself has more options when on the ball) simply creates more chances for Chelsea and makes them a much more dangerous side.

2. The risks of Sarrismo

Maurizio Sarri’s system of play is high-risk, that much is evident. Sarri’s desire for his side to dominate the ball and be pro-active necessitates the forward movement of basically all his players. In particular the left-back has to play seriously advanced to participate in the build-up and provide width for Eden Hazard’s inward movement.

Even Cesar Azpilicueta, the more defensive of the full-backs, pushes into the opponent’s half when Chelsea have the ball. What this does is leave Chelsea high up the field with so much space at their back that a side capable of counter-attacking into space could cause them countless problems. Against West Ham they largely got away with this but it was screamingly obvious that against better sides Chelsea could be cut to ribbons on the counter.

3. West Ham’s mercurial attack

Most of the reason that West Ham failed to take advantage of the spaces Chelsea left for them on the break is simple: their attack. Not that they’re not a talented bunch; Felipe Anderson is a magnificently creative forward, Andriy Yarmolenko a glorious goalscorer fresh off a brace last week, and Michail Antonio is an athletically dominant forward who has a history of roughing up unprepared opponents.

But none of them do these things consistently. And that’s the problem. Obviously if you look at the result on paper, West Ham holding Chelsea to a 0-0 draw is an impressive result, especially as it’s their first home point this season. But watching the flow of the game, it’s baffling that West Ham failed to score, because they created open chances on the break that they really should have taken. Yarmolenko’s missed header at the end was particularly galling.

Manuel Pellegrini seems to have stabilised the West Ham defence, but their attack will continue to be unpredictable.

4. Europa League perils

Playing in the Europa League has always been seen as a double-edged sword. On the one hand it’s a path to the Champions League and a cup worthy of winning in its own right. On the other hand, the Thursday kick-offs and often far-flunged destinations make it a headache because of the travel time involved.

Many teams get around these problems by rotating their sides heavily. And a team with as much impressive squad depth as Chelsea should have done a lot of that. And sure, Jorginho and Eden Hazard didn’t play, but N’Golo Kanté did, César Azpilicueta did, and yeah – so did Antonio Rudiger. The colossal German defender, the bedrock on which Chelsea’s defence is built.

Ethan Ampadu (or Gary Cahill, if you wanted to follow Chelsea’s M.O. and not give youngsters a chance) was right there, fresh off an international break where he started twice for Wales. Instead though, he had to watch as Rudiger played all 90 minutes. And then Rudiger went off here with a muscle injury. Hopefully it’s not serious, but it does highlight the perils of not rotating in the Europa League.

5. Hazard’s soft side

After his hat-trick last week, Maurizio Sarri made a bold declaration that Eden Hazard could score 40 goals this season. That was quite some claim but given Hazard had started the season with five goals in five games – it seemed to make sense. The one worry was always going to be the ruthlessness needed to score that amount of goals; did Hazard have it?

This week showed the answer to be… probably not? The Belgian was stunted against West Ham, but he had a couple of moments where a more ruthless player (like Cristiano Ronaldo, the level Hazard aspires to reach) would have lashed a shot at goal. Now, they may not have scored, but they certainly would have tried.

Hazard, meanwhile, passed the buck both times. He knocked the ball across or back to Alvaro Morata, and in both instances Lukasz Fabianski stood tall and repelled the Spaniard’s shot. This is not a criticism of Hazard, because a player that good being so dedicated to making his team-mates thrive is something that should be applauded, but this “soft side” of his is going to stand in his way if he truly wants to reach that incredible 40 goal mark Sarri has set.

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