West Ham United handed a blow to Chelsea’s title aspirations in their first win under David Moyes as they beat the champions 1-0 at the London Stadium on Saturday.
The only goal of the match came after just six minutes as Marko Arnautovic scored a sumptuous curling goal from the edge of the box. Thereafter, Chelsea grabbed the bulk of the goalscoring opportunities, but lacked the killer touch to make anything happen.
One player was especially profligate on the day as Alvaro Morata’s poor form in front of goal continued. And the Spaniard had some rather unkind words coming his way, from Chelsea and rival fans alike.
The Floor is Scoring with Leg…
Morata. pic.twitter.com/JivkvCcHni
— BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM (@BOOOMBGUY) December 9, 2017
Remember when Lukaku scored 2 goals against West Ham and people were complaining about it only being West Ham. Morata played 90 minutes today and spent his time being caught offside, completely bottling his chances and diving stupidly.
— Adäm. (@UnitedAdz) December 9, 2017
Kane has scored 50 goals in 2017.
Morata has only ever scored 68 goals in his career.— Níall (@thfcNiall) December 9, 2017
3 goals in his last 14 games for Morata — and he’s been getting decent chances in almost every match.
— J. Tweedie (@JoeTweedie) December 9, 2017
Lukaku getting all the abuse on FT but Morata has missed the most clear cut chances in the Premier League
— Ali (@FutbolBallack) December 9, 2017
Tiemoue Bakayoko got a lot of stick from Chelsea fans as well, as things went from bad to worse for him after another poor performance.
Bakayoko has now cost us 3 goals. I’ll never rest until he’s sold and we bring back a proper baller like Ruben Loftus-Cheek
— 3-5-2 (@TailoredConte) December 9, 2017
When Chelsea realise Tiémoué Bakayoko is not better at anything than Nemanja Matic and they strengthened a key rival by selling the Serbian. pic.twitter.com/0SdpVI3iSX
— Adam Joseph (@AdamJosephSport) December 9, 2017
I knew something was a bit off about this Bakayoko.
Chelsea tabled a bid, no other club dragged him with them.
Monaco didn’t demand for more money.Smh.
— Benny Blanco. (@TheFigga) December 9, 2017
“Bakayoko is only 22. He’s made a few mistakes but he’s still young so you can’t say he’s a downgrade on Matic. He’ll only get better” pic.twitter.com/btXMouPBzF
— Sam (@PULlSIC) December 9, 2017
Antonio Conte copped his fair share of flak and trolling as well, especially for his comments claiming Chelsea’s title challenge “never started”.
Not keen on Conte a) giving the title up in December and b) saying our title challenge “never started”.
— J. Tweedie (@JoeTweedie) December 9, 2017
Fact is Conte won a title off Mourinho’s leaders like Matic, Terry & Costa. Without them he’s just an over aggressive wig wearing red bull addict
— The United Stand (@UnitedStandMUFC) December 9, 2017
You can’t blame that on Marina Granovskaia, Michael Emenalo or any of the Chelsea board. We’ve lost to Crystal Palace and West Ham – two of the worst teams in the league. Antonio Conte has to take responsibility for that.
— Jamie Wilkinson (@parkedthebus) December 9, 2017
Just locked my mum in the toilet she’s screaming I can’t handle ittttttttttt. I’m not letting her out until Conte’s sacked
— SamirLV (@SamirLV9) December 9, 2017
How does Conte get out coached by Roy Hodgson and David Moyes, the 2 most dead managers in the league in the same season?
— Kadeem (@KadeemDaDream) December 9, 2017
Two of Conte’s subs were to replace a left wingback with a right wingback and move the original right wingback to left wingback then replace that original right wingback and move one of the 3 centrebacks to defensive leftback, effectively keeping 3 centrebacks as 3 centrebacks.
— Robbie ? (@cfcism) December 9, 2017
Questions to be asked of Conte’s team selection too. Why go with 9 of the 10 outfielders who started mid-week?
— Priya Ramesh (@Priya8Ramesh) December 9, 2017
Tactically exposed by Roy Hodgson Sean Dyche and David Moyes in less than half a season #ConteOut pic.twitter.com/aFj3ofhBmR
— R?? (@DeadIyEden) December 9, 2017
There is zero penetration vs a team which parks the bus. Conte has to rely on individual brilliance to bail him out. This is why he is inferior than Pep.
— MrBlueGuy (@ItsMrBlueGuy) December 9, 2017
One concern I have with Conte’s coaching methods is that when you rely so heavily on positional instruction and rigidity, when we need a bit of invention and creativity, we seem lost. It’s like we can’t play without structure when we need to.
— J. Tweedie (@JoeTweedie) December 9, 2017
Conte rely too heavily on Hazard to bail him out. You can’t possibly play seven or eight defensive minded players weekend in and without regardless of the opposition. Rigid.
Our football is boring.
Time for Roman to sack Conte.— Wisostic (@wisostic1) December 9, 2017