Chelsea win it at the death after Dawson's red card

Chelsea 1 West Ham 0

This is always going to be a tough game with Moyes resting Rice, Antonio, Lanzini and Bowen for Thursday night. The home crowd is depleted and Chelsea look way off it in the first half as West Ham defend stoutly, with some solid work from the squad players like Yarmolenko and Masuaku and Cresswell and Johnson slotting in well in the middle alongside Dawson. Benrahma almost gets through a couple of times after Chelsea mistakes but it's a poor first half.

The second half sees Chelsea improve a little as Fabianski has to save efforts from Chalobah and Werner. Dawson has to make some heroic blocks while Yarmolenko gets through to force a double save from Mendy. With Rice and Bowen on it looks like West Ham might even nick a win as Yarmy lays it back for Soucek to have a shot blocked.

Lukaku coming on is ominous though — and sure enough the game turns as Lukaku rolls Dawson and feeling a tug on his arm goes down in the box. It's a penalty and red card after a VAR review. So West Ham are now down to no centre backs and no strikers. But it looks like the Irons might be on for a point after Jorginho rolls a pathetic penalty straight to Fabianski.

But it's not to be. Rice is dropping back as emergency cover, but In the 90th minute Alonso gets in another cross and Pulisic sweeps home in a position where Dawson might have blocked. A cruel way to lose after a spirited if limited defensive performance. A full-strength West Ham side could have won this, but it's understandable why Moyes has rotated. Chelsea could bring on a £90 million sub which highlights the limits of WHU's tiny squad and the folly of not buying any players in January. With four league games left our season now rests on the Europa League semi-final.