No wonder Frank Lampard keeps changing his mind over his strikers. Just as one looks set to nail down the centre-forward role, up pops another to give him a headache.
Tammy Abraham’s timing could not have been better for the Chelsea head coach as he staked a claim to stay in ahead of Olivier Giroud.
His late goals against West Ham United not only secured a valuable victory to end Chelsea’s mini-losing run, but also made up for the fact that Timo Werner’s goal drought extended to nine games.
Other than picking between Giroud and Abraham, Lampard’s next big decision might be how long he can continue to start Werner, who missed a great chance and hit the crossbar. Werner set up Abraham’s first goal with a cross that may well have been intended as a shot and the German, as ever, never gave up and did not give the West Ham defenders a minute’s rest.
But he is short of confidence and Lampard may well have to rest him once winger Hakim Ziyech returns from injury to further increase his forward options. Werner had been Chelsea’s undisputed leading striker before last month’s international break, but he has not scored since returning from Germany’s thrashing at the hands of Spain.
Giroud initially took over the goalscoring responsibility, before Abraham last night reminded everyone of his predatory skills.
Lampard will not mind too much who scored and whether or not the result slightly flattered Chelsea, following defeats to Everton and Wolverhampton Wanderers. This win moved the Blues back up to fifth place, level on points with Tottenham Hotspur.
Chelsea had spent most of the second half defending Thiago Silva’s headed opener before Abraham scored twice in the space of three late minutes to calm their nerves.
Silva’s goal came in the 10th minute, just after Ben Chilwell had been forced off with an injury on his birthday that left Lampard without either of his first-choice full-backs.
Reece James was missing because of a knee problem and Chilwell was substituted after falling awkwardly on his ankle, but Chelsea managed to take the lead after suffering a scare when a Declan Rice goal was disallowed for offside.
Mason Mount’s corner was perfectly weighted for Silva to run on to and head, unmarked, past West Ham goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski. The goal was the eighth Chelsea have scored from a corner this season, which is more than any other Premier League team, and it was the third header from a Mount delivery.
Lampard would have been disappointed that his team gradually lost the initiative as the first half went on and part of that was down to a poor performance from Jorginho, who had replaced Kai Havertz.
The Italy international kept giving the ball away, although it was an N’Golo Kante slip that nearly let in Sebastien Haller, who was stopped by Cesar Azpilicueta.
Having given his team the lead, Silva produced a 34th-minute block that preserved Chelsea advantage as he got in the way of Thomas Soucek’s well-hit shot.
Werner’s big chance came at the end of the first half after Chelsea had weathered a bit of a storm. Christian Pulisic danced his way past a couple of challenges before playing in Werner, who just had Fabianski to beat from eight yards, but he passed the ball straight at the goalkeeper.
It was the kind of chance Werner would have blasted into the net before going away on international duty with Germany in November.
The second-half did not start much better for Jorginho or Werner. It was Jorginho who gifted possession to West Ham for an early second-half move that ended with an Aaron Cresswell cross from which Haller should have done much better than head tamely wide.
And Werner failed to get on the end of an Abraham centre, before sending a cross of his own straight out of play from the left side. Azpilicueta had to produce a brilliant block with his right boot to stop a shot from Pablo Fornals and, sensing there was something in the game for his team, West Ham manager David Moyes sent on Said Benrahma to replace Fornals.
Lampard also made a change to try to get some control of midfield, as Mateo Kovacic took over from Jorginho, but he stuck with Werner on the left and that decision was in some part repaid with 12 minutes remaining. Chelsea looked in store for a nervy ending until Werner’s cross-shot was tapped into the net by Abraham, who was played onside by Cresswell. Abraham quickly doubled his tally by pouncing after Fabianski had saved a Pulisic header.
The perfect ending for Lampard and Chelsea would have been a fourth goal from Werner, but that proved to be too much to ask for as he crashed a shot against the bar and the wait for a goal will continue.
The Telegraph
