Three things we learnt from Chelsea’s 2-1 victory over West Ham

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Andy Carroll Is A Problem Away From Home

What Carroll can and can’t do doesn’t need to be reasserted, the question is what are the best situations to deploy him? West Ham were pinned back for most of last night’s game, and therefore were playing long balls towards Carroll who was trying to bring others into play. With John Terry and Gary Cahill in close attendance however, the former Newcastle man had little joy. Some will argue that you need a target man to take the pressure of the team, but a better policy may have been to hit the space behind Terry and Cahill with balls over the top, perhaps with Enner Valencia through the middle.

Particularly in the second half when Chelsea started pressing higher up the pitch, West Ham were forced to play more direct balls in order to negate the risk of losing the ball in dangerous positions. However, when you are forced to play on the counter attack, Carroll becomes something of a passenger because the visitors had no forward to challenge the space behind Terry and Cahill.