West Ham 2-1 Chelsea
It is not just about a local rivalry, nor is it just about losing to a ‘lesser’ team. But at this still early stage of the season this game proved to be the game Premier League fans realised Chelsea weren’t just having a blip to the start of their season, in fact, this looked likely to be the course for the season.
Up until that point they had drew at home to a well-respected Swansea City side, lost away to title-contenders Manchester City convincingly, lost back-to-back to Crystal Palace and Everton – who have proved to be some of league’s the form sides – beat Arsenal to restore some faith and again another loss at home to a decent Southampton side. These were defeats they wouldn’t have expected, but nonetheless, they proved they could win against their biggest rivals in local side Arsenal.
However, the Hammers defeat marked the first of three consecutive losses and at this point Chelsea’s dire run was no longer a poor start but proved that the Blues really were struggling to get anything at all. There was only so many times Mourinho could drop points to teams they should be taking all three from.
Gary Cahill’s 56th-minute strike either side of Mauro Zarate and Andy Carroll’s goals was little consolation for the fact that the defeat marked their fifth loss in 10 league matches.
