Chelsea raised the shoulders of the absence of Cole Palmer to start their season in style while deepening the gloom at West Ham after only two games after a 5-1 victory in London Stadium.
The goals of João Pedro, Pedro Neto, Enzo Fernández, Moisés Caicedo and Trevoh Chalobah – after Lucas Paquetá gave the hosts a shock – won a swinging victory for the blues and raised them at the top of the table for the first time since December 2021.
It is perhaps only for a few hours – and obviously, the other 18 teams only played one match – but it still looked important, being the first time that Chelsea has been at the top of the pile since Todd Boehly took over and has embarked on his spending frenzy of 1 billion pound sterling.
Meanwhile, while the new club world champions have shaken the dust after their draw with Crystal Palace, West Ham slipped to the bottom of the table after a lamentable display, the guy who makes managers limits.
Graham Potter, whose team lost 3-0 in Sunderland last weekend, now has a worst record for his 20 games in charge that Julen Lopetegui, the man he replaced in January.
However, Potter may have felt that his luck was about to change against his old club when Palmer was injured during the heating, the 18-year-old Brazilian East replacing him.
Then, from nowhere, Paquetá gave West Ham an advance of the sixth minute, launching a spectacular swerving and plunging on the goalkeeper of Blues Robert Sánchez.
But it was a case of palmer, no problem against one side of the hammers, that of incompetent Chelsea and nine minutes later was level.
The first of the five sweet goals – all of buttons – came with Marc Cucurella who launched on the corner of Neto so that Pedro Hoche head in his first premier league goal for his new side.
West Ham thought they were back forward a few moments later when Niclas Füllkrug buried a loose ball, but a Var check excluded him for the offside.
Instead, in the 23rd minute, Chelsea took the lead after Pacquetá was intimidated from the ball by Chalobah, Pedro crossed the ball and Neto, completely unmarked, converted with a flying pole.
The third of Chelsea of a frantic first half arrived with the kind authorization of a first decisive pass from East Bêve, which ran undisputed in the region and in the square for Fernández to enter an empty net.
They achieved a fourth nine minutes after the start of the second half after the goalkeeper of the new Hammers Mads Hermansen beat in another corner and Caicedo pierced the ball at home.
Hermansen was again guilty while the fifth exceeded, from another corner, via the head of Chalobah, and there were even fans running on the ground towards the end of a humiliating night for West Ham.
